International Address Validation: Address Checker: Validate and Verify Postal Addresses

Address Checker: Verify Australia Postal Addresses

There are several reasons why companies need to maintain cleansed and updated mailing lists. Some of the reasons are conducting direct mail campaigns, completing orders, sending transactional mail, and so on.

Did you know that 4 in 10 Australians change their addresses every five years?

Moreover, 15% of Australians move every year. Therefore, it is obvious that every year the Australia Post database witnesses tons of address changes, and you need to keep up with them.

Sending mail to unverified addresses is a gamble, but there are high chances that most of your mail items would not get delivered. Misspellings, incomplete or missing details, wrong abbreviations, wrong postcodes, and other such things can result in failed deliveries. Such mistakes are highly common and can lead to huge waste.

An address checker API or software can be the solution to all these problems. In this blog, we would be discussing address verification and how an address checker can make your everyday work so much easier.

What Is an Address Checker to Verify Postal Addresses?

An address checker can help companies cross-check and verify their mailing addresses before mailing anything to them. It is vital to save time and money spent over reshipping items. An address checker can determine whether your mailing addresses are real, correct, and deliverable. Oftentimes, some addresses are real and yet not deliverable or correct yet invalid.

Address checking and verification solutions can help identify addresses that cannot be mailed to. They further help you correct such addresses and make them mail-ready. Hence, you can make sure that all your mail items are delivered to the right addresses without any delays, issues, or confusion.

How does address verification work?

It is a process made up of several steps that are completed simultaneously by the address checker. The initial steps are to address parsing and standardization. Address parsing is breaking down addresses into different address components such as the unit number, building name, street name, suburb, and state. It helps in auto-filling the different components into their respective address fields for better clarity and standardization.

Address standardization can become difficult if addresses are not parsed correctly. It is the process of arranging address components in the right format as per the Australia Post address guidelines. For sending mail through Australia Post, all addresses must be in the right format, or else your mail will never reach on time. Address parsing and standardization are two preparatory steps that help to verify addresses accurately. Though these steps sound easy, doing them regularly and for bulk addresses is extremely time-consuming and hectic.

Businesses should make sure to use an AMAS-certified address checker like PostGrid. The Address Matching Approval System (AMAS) certification is to ensure that all addresses are verified against the Australia Post Postal Address File (PAF). PAF is known to have millions of address records, including PO boxes. Hence, AMAS-certified addresses are up-to-date, correct, and deliverable.

Australia Post Address Verification and Third-Party Solutions

Australia Post offers address validation solutions and access to their raw address database through their data partners, who can also be referred to as third parties. Other than that, Australia Post offers various services that are important for companies to update their mailing lists regularly.

The National Change of Address service is meant to record all address changes during a year. It helps them update the PAF and help citizens get their mail received accurately. The service also benefits companies by notifying them of all the registered address changes. However, residents need to provide their consent for getting their updated details shared with certain companies under the Notify Organisations service. This way, marketers can filter out people who have voluntarily opted out of receiving any mail.

There are certain address checker APIs and software like PostGrid that can offer several helpful features and benefits. PostGrid can help you check and verify addresses in bulk and at point-of-entry. By verifying addresses before entering your system, you can make sure that your mailing lists are ready to be mailed without any delays, which is important for completing customer orders. Otherwise, marketers can process mailing lists with bulk addresses for verification.

It is better to use third-party solutions as you get a better interface to work on, more features, flexibility, and fuzzy matching. Australia Post may not be able to correct misspellings or other mistakes, but a third-party address checker can. PostGrid can replace your wrong street names with the right ones, add missing postcode digits, correct misspellings, and then proceed to return highly accurate addresses.

Moreover, PostGrid offers print and mail automation solutions. Along with verifying addresses, you can actually create, print, and send your mail items anywhere in Australia and abroad.

Why Choose PostGrid’s Postal Address Checker?

PostGrid’s address verification API can be integrated into the company’s CRM, accounting, payroll, and other software to start checking addresses without any technical expertise. It is ideal for bulk address verification as the API can process several requests at the same time. For a company sending out direct mail items on a regular basis, getting addresses verified in bulk can be a strong performance booster.

Manual data entry is prone to errors. PostGrid’s fuzzy matching capabilities can identify addresses and correct them even when there are several errors in the inputs. Another useful feature that PostGrid has addresses autocomplete. This feature can help companies reduce the checkout time on their websites and applications and also improve their user experience. It encourages people to purchase from the brand as they no longer need to type their entire address manually.

PostGrid’s address checker API can combine geocoding and Australia Post’s PAF to return precise addresses just within a few keystrokes.

Additionally, PostGrid allows real-time mail tracking, measuring campaign performance, managing user permissions, taking care of direct mail compliances, and more that makes it so much more than an address checker. It is the all-in-one solution to all your print and mail needs.

Reasons For Receiving Invalid Addresses

Sometimes, even valid addresses can be marked as invalid by an address checker. It happens due to some possible reasons as below:

Fake Addresses

Some people make up fake or imaginary addresses while shopping online or filling up a survey form offline. They either don’t wish to reveal their real address or are just browsing on your website with no actual intention to buy. Either way, your mail deliveries to these addresses are sure to fail. Fake addresses as such are not present in any database and are hence marked invalid.

Incorrect Addresses

The main job of the address checker is to identify incorrect addresses, which it does. Incorrect addresses are always marked invalid, irrespective of whether they are valid but have a minor misspelling. PostGrid can help you correct errors and allow addresses to be marked valid.

Not Occupied and Not Registered Addresses

Any address that is not registered with Australia Post will be marked invalid even if it is correct and deliverable. Addresses that are vacant or not occupied are also shown as invalid.

Wrapping Up

Oftentimes, companies think that they do not need an address checker because they only have to verify a few addresses. However, PostGrid’s address verification API also enables you to verify addresses on-demand and only pay for that. Hence, it is handy, efficient, time-saving, cost-effective, and precise. It is ideal for verifying national and international addresses, whether on-demand or in bulk.