Real Time Shipping Address Verification -- Any Suggestions?

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jill224
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Real Time Shipping Address Verification -- Any Suggestions?

Post by jill224 » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:05 pm

I was curious if anyone has any suggestions as to how we can integrate some sort of real-time shipping address verification / standardization software into AC Checkout.

Currently, we are shipping only USPS Priority Mail at flat rates and when we do our shipping labels we have a huge amount of orders where customers have either put in totally invalid addresses, incorrect zip codes, left out apartment or suite info or other problems so that we have to spend time contacting them to correct the problem before the orders can be shipped. This creates huge amount of havoc and wasted time because no one ever seems to understand what address standardization is and why their package just can't be shipped with the address as they enter it.

Our hope is that there is some sort of 3rd party software or even something available through USPS where the customer needs to verify their address in real time as they are placing the order, and cannot place the order without entering a completely valid, standardized version of their address. I have been searching a bit online and finding software that does address standardization but wasn't sure if and how they can be implemented directly into the checkout process.

Has anyone been able to accomplish this or does anyone have any recommendations or experiences with existing software that does this? I searched the forums but found only info that applies to UPS or Fedex tools. I definitely need something compatible with USPS in this case.

Any help and suggestions would be much appreciated! This is my first post, but I have using the boards for reference for months and appreciate everyone's helpful input! Thanks in advance! :D

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Re: Real Time Shipping Address Verification -- Any Suggestions?

Post by Shopping Cart Admin » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:15 pm

Hello Jill?

It's a paid service mainly for taxes but Avatax includes address verification. But I'd guess this would only be reasonable if you needed their tax service as well.

http://help.ablecommerce.com/index.htm# ... ervice.htm
Thanks for your support

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Re: Real Time Shipping Address Verification -- Any Suggestions?

Post by afm » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:48 pm

Hello Jill,

I have worked with both Endicia and AddressDoctor. Both work well. I have never integrated either into AbleCommerce, but it would not be hard.

Endicia's service is domestic US only. Their address verification/standardization service is integrated into all of their products, but is also available (or was available) as a separate service. You would have to contact them for cost.

AddressDoctor is worldwide. They charge per address. The service is very fast and amazingly accurate for all of the countries they cover.

http://www.endicia.com
http://www.addressdoctor.com
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Re: Real Time Shipping Address Verification -- Any Suggestions?

Post by jmestep » Wed Feb 03, 2010 8:29 am

Web2Market has done an address validation plugin using UPS addresses. It might be something that would work for USPS also- I don't know the programming specifics.
You can call W2M or email asoave@web2market.com (Allan Soave) if you are interested.
http://www.web2market.com/UPS-Address-V ... 27C37.aspx
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http://www.web2market.com/Search-Report ... -P154.aspx

jill224
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Re: Real Time Shipping Address Verification -- Any Suggestions?

Post by jill224 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 3:47 pm

Judy & Andy: Thank you both for your recommendations!

If anyone else has any more options, I would definitely be interested to hear those as well.

I have been looking at the websites for all of those choices, trying to figure out if any of them would work for us and I am going to try to contact W2M to see if that plugin is doable with the USPS address database.

Thanks again! :D

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