What needs to be considered for international shipping?
We spoke to Lena Schmitt from Endereco to talk about the challenges of international shipping for online retailers and how they can be overcome.
Hello Lena. You have been supporting online retailers with domestic and international sales since 2014. In your experience, what are the typical stumbling blocks in international shipping with regard to addresses?
International shipping is quite a challenge for many online retailers. Address problems can lead to considerable delays or even the loss of parcels, which is annoying for both the retailer and the customer and leads to waiting times, loss of trust and unnecessary costs. I can think of three typical problems in international shipping off the top of my head:
- The formatting and spelling of addresses, which vary greatly from country to country, is, of course, very classic. For example, the order of street names, house numbers and zip codes differs. In some countries or regions, house numbers are not used at all or, as in Austria, Stiege and Tür are used in addition to the house number.
- Addresses in foreign languages and scripts (e.g. Cyrillic, Chinese, Arabic) are difficult to read or interpret. In many countries, addresses contain special characters or accents that are not used in other countries. These are then often lost when printing or in electronic systems, resulting in extra costs or even undeliverability.
- Address data changes over time. Incorporations, renaming of streets, new development areas - addresses must be kept up to date in order to be delivered correctly.
At endereco, we also offer a service that automatically checks information from existing customers at the desired intervals.
How can I ensure that I display the correct format of the address for the destination country on forms?
Displaying the correct format for addresses in the target country is actually a complex problem. Customers often pay little attention to the structure of the address form. There is almost always an "address supplement" or similar field, which is often misused by customers entering all kinds of information. Unfortunately, many merchandise management programs and postal services cannot cope with this flood of incorrect or unnecessary address information.
We are currently working on a solution to this problem. After extensive research and A/B testing, we have decided on a solution that processes and structures the data in the background.
Are there countries that are particularly suitable for address validation? Or, conversely, for which countries is insufficient data available?
In principle, all industrialized countries such as Germany, Belgium, Switzerland or USA a very well developed and mature postal system. For such countries, there is usually address data with verification accuracy at house number level.
On the other hand, there are countries such as Afghanistan, Nepal or North Korea where address data is rarely updated or is only available at local level. For the average online retailer, however, these countries do not play a role, so this is not a problem in practice.
From what store size is it worth investing in an address check?
Investing in address validation can always be worthwhile, regardless of the size of the store. Large order volumes often mean a high error rate when entering addresses, which can then lead to considerable costs due to returns, delays and declining customer satisfaction.
Ultimately, the decision depends on the specific circumstances of the store. An analysis of the current address error rate and the associated costs can definitely provide a sound basis for decision-making. A major argument in favor of address verification for many stores is that the improved address data quality significantly reduces the workload in order processing, warehousing and logistics. In times of permanent staff shortages, this is a decisive advantage for many companies.
Where does the data used for verification come from?
We work exclusively with high-quality European data providers. In the DACH region, our core market, these include the country-specific postal companies. This ensures that we have the most up-to-date and best available database.
What about data protection - surely that's a big issue for you?
Absolutely - as we work with personal data, this is extremely important. Endereco works 100% GDPR compliant. Our plugins and tools do not use any cookies. As our servers, data providers etc. are all located in the EU and we do not work with Google Maps, for example, there is no data outflow to the USA. For many of our customers, this is one of the decisive arguments for using us as a service provider.
We would like to thank Lena Schmitt from endereco for the interview!