Types of Address Verification

Zip-code or partial verification prompts a user to enter their zip code or state to populate adjacent fields such as city, county, state or Zip+4. This enhances the customer experience by reducing keystrokes and giving them confidence their products will arrive.

While post-entry verification is the most popular forms of address verification, it does little to improve the user experience. Here the customer to enters their address manually and then prompted them with a pop-up showing possible alternatives. The customer then has to confirm or re-select the correct address to complete the order.

This is popular among top online retailers, like Amazon, a recent consumer studies show this method makes customers feel like they’ve made a mistake. This creates doubt in the customer. They see the pop-up as something to help the retailer as opposed to the customer. Many customers felt this was an extra step that wasted their time. In the world of online retail, extra steps lead to decreased sales.

Predictive address verification immediately suggests a list of valid local addresses as a user types in their address. The better ways of predictive address verification mimic intuitive search engines.

When a user selects an address from a drop-down set of results, the application populates the remaining address fields such as city, state, ZIP and ZIP+4. This increases the probability the exact address and provides a better user experience. The user has less steps with greater accuracy.