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Four Reasons Every Commercial Website Needs Address Validation

By Ann Mazotta, California Business Journal

There are over 1.5 billion websites registered in the world. Currently, 200 million of these are active. The number of active websites has been growing steadily for years.

In short, if you’re in business and online, you’re facing increasing competition. The simple truth is, that everyone is moving online, and e-commerce businesses are the business of the future.

Of course, any e-commerce website offers an obvious advantage to shoppers. It’s convenient to shop at any time of the day and prices are often cheaper.

However, while the advantages generally outweigh the disadvantages, any commercial website operator knows there are issues. Data security and package delivery are two of the biggest problems.

Fortunately, reputable businesses, such as address4.com, are offering address validation services for commercial websites. If you’re running an online business, here are four reasons you need to invest in address validation software today.

Better Customer Experience

Your customer is likely to be fickle. If a product looks cheaper elsewhere, or they feel they will get a better experience, they’ll go elsewhere. It’s much harder to keep customers loyal!

Address validation software can fill in parts of the address for your customer. For example, a postcode and narrow the address to an area or even a street.

By using this, customers will find entering their details faster and more efficient. That means a better customer experience and you’re more likely to retain the customer.

Reduce The Risk of Fraud

One of the biggest issues facing commercial websites is that fraudsters can use other people’s card details and get the goods sent to a pickup point. They then take the goods, leaving you out of pocket. The real cardholder will file a chargeback.

An address verification system can check the person lives at the address they have inputted and flag any discrepancies for you to investigate. The system can also check that the cardholder’s name and address match.

By verifying these details the system will make it much harder for fraudsters to operate, saving you money and your customer inconvenience.

Once customers know that you do this they’ll find it easier to trust your business and are likely to pick you over the competition.

Lower Expenses

How many times have you sent a parcel in good faith only to find it returned? It may be because someone has tried to fraudulently order it and you’ve been lucky enough to get it back.

In many cases, it’s simply an input error and the parcel has gone to the wrong address. When this happens, you have to resend the parcel to your customer and, in most cases, you’re not going to charge them for resending it.

That means, you’re paying the postage twice, your customer isn’t satisfied with the service, and you’re spending time reprocessing an order to get it dispatched a second time.

Address validation software skips all of this, ensuring the address is correctly entered and matches the cardholder. That can save you a significant amount of funds.

Improved Reputation

Lastly, and certainly not least, address verification software will boost your business reputation. Your customer will be getting a better service, that’s enough to persuade them to tell others about your business. They are also more likely to use you again.

That positive experience translates to an improved reputation and additional customers. All it takes is the addition of software capable of verifying addresses.