Could you be losing customers with an outdated address verification system?

In today’s uncertain and unpredictable world, it’s difficult to find any sector that isn’t under pressure. Costs are rising, geopolitical pressures are mounting, and many companies’ profitability levels are declining. From discounting to growing fulfilment costs, it’s clear that turning a profit in the fast-moving realm of ecommerce is becoming increasingly harder to achieve. Earlier this month, research unveiled by International Logistics Group highlighted how fulfilment costs and operational pressures are now overtaking marketing as the biggest barriers to growth. Put another way, ecommerce brands are no longer struggling to generate demand, but struggling to fulfil it. As a company built around postcode lookup software, Fetchify gets to regularly look behind the curtain and see first-hand how ecommerce companies are struggling with inefficiencies; inefficiencies that are, effectively, eroding the bottom line. Generally speaking, there’s often one thing that jumps out as a potential area for improvement. Thankfully, it’s also an area that Fetchify can easily resolve. Clean data is good data Customer data sits at the core of any ecommerce company’s operations. The irony, however, is that despite it being an organisation’s lifeblood, it’s often littered with errors and duplications, all of which eat further into profit margins if these inaccuracies result in failed deliveries, reshipping costs and lost conversions at checkout. Smart Routes , a route optimisation firm, for example, claims the average cost per failed delivery is £11.60. Not only that, but 70 per cent of shoppers are unlikely to return after a failure. It doesn’t take that many of these before you’ve significantly eaten into the bottom line with costs that are avoidable, damaged your reputation and lost future business. This is where data quality becomes a commercial priority, not just a nice to have. Fetchify's Data Cleansing service, for example, validates records against Royal Mail PAF® data, standardises formats for phone and email contact data, improves data health by giving longer-term usability, and helps organisations keep their customer contact databases clean and compliant. We’ve launched this service on the basis that maintaining high-quality data standards is no longer optional. It’s mission critical. Avoiding ‘data decay’ Getting your data right at the point of capture is crucial. However, maintaining your database is just as important. It’s also a bit like tending to your garden – it needs constant attention if you want it to stay in shape. According to The Smarketers , B2B contact data decays at a rate of 30 per cent each year. Or, to explain it in layman’s terms, if your database of customers is 100,000 strong, 30,000 of them become inaccurate every 12 months. If you’re sending communications to the wrong person, then you’re damaging trust. If you’re not sending communications to 30 per cent of your prospective customer list, then you’re missing opportunities. Either way, you’re losing out. As businesses face growing pressure to improve delivery performance without passing on costs, our view is that getting your data right – and ensuring it stays right – is a quick, easy and inexpensive way in which to address both requirements. The Bottom Line Customer expectations are rising in tandem with intensifying competition. There is no longer any room for inefficiencies. From Fetchify’s standpoint, organisations that invest in data cleansing tools are gaining a competitive advantage and reducing wastage. Not only that, but they’re also lowering operational costs by reducing the risk of failed deliveries, increasing the chances of conversion and creating a solid foundation for ongoing, personalised marketing. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be expensive – it just needs to be precise. Clean data improves operations and protects margins. In a market where every cost counts, getting your data right is one of the simplest ways to stay competitive and stay profitable. Want to see how clean data could improve your margins? Discover how Fetchify’s data cleansing solutions can help you reduce costs, improve delivery success and unlock better performance by calling a member of the team on +44 (0)333 014 1992. 

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As a customer data verification software provider, we’ve been helping businesses ensure that they deliver products purchased by their customers online, to the right people at the right time since 2008. Take our longstanding Postcode Lookup service, for example. Businesses that incorporate this at their online checkout enable customers to quickly – and accurately – add their address simply by inputting their postcode. For the end user making a purchase, it’s a frictionless way to add their address details. For our customers, this translates into smoother conversions and consistently valid data. It also reduces the risk of failed or returned deliveries, because the information entered is drawn directly from Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) and confirmed by the end user before they click “buy now”. In the 18 years since our inception, our products and services have evolved to include email, phone number, and even bank account validations at the point of checkout, too. At the heart of everything we do is data - and our ability to harness it to improve the end‑user experience while reducing the risk of input errors. However, no two addresses are the same. A changing property landscape The UK and Ireland’s property landscape is not only dense but rapidly evolving. There are more and more properties being built that contain more than one home, and planning volumes pertaining to new properties are continually growing. The Build to Rent market, for example, surpassed 300,000 homes in 2025, according to Knight Frank . The result? More homes are concentrated in smaller spaces, making delivery logistics harder to navigate. Whilst the property landscape is evolving, if you’re a business that’s responsible for high delivery volumes, you need to evolve with it in order to maintain checkout simplicity for end-users, and reduce the hassle and cost of failed or missing deliveries to maintain profit margins. Seeing the full picture with Enriched Data In line with developing a wider product portfolio, we’ve launched Enriched Data – a suite of individual services designed to delve deeper into the nuances of the UK and Ireland’s growing list of addresses. Each service is available separately, giving businesses the flexibility to choose the specific enrichment they need. Here are four examples of how these services can help organisations that rely on deliveries. Multiple residences: Accuracy in Every Unit As previously covered, apartments, shared housing, and multi-family housing are becoming a larger component of the UK and Ireland’s property makeup. If you’re a business that predominantly targets young adults and those more likely to live in high-density housing and multi-occupancy dwellings, then ensuring that your product actually reaches them is possibly as critical to your business as the sale itself. Our Multiple Residence Data feature enables your customers to instantly identify and input their property at checkout, as our software includes the postcodes of 900,000 properties that fall under housing of this nature. We’re living in an age where one postcode doesn’t simply represent one street. There are now many levels and layers linked to one postcode. Enriched Data allows you and the delivery services to see them very clearly. Not-Yet-built: A glimpse into the future The Royal Mail’s PAF is comprehensive. However, it only covers existing properties. This is where our Not Yet Built Data feature comes in, which has been developed around Royal Mail’s Not Yet Built database - a specialised, monthly-updated databank identifying over 700,000 UK properties currently in planning or under construction. The beauty of this dataset is that it allows businesses to identify future customers, validate addresses for new developments before they appear in the main PAF database, and target new-build areas. Naturally, our Enriched Data services include this dataset, which means that Fetchify customers can use it strategically to engage with future customers and model anticipated demand volumes – even before the building’s foundations are in place. Rooftop Geocodes: The finer details In simpler times, a dropped pin would have provided enough information for a delivery driver to make a delivery. However, as property density increases, pressure on delivery drivers intensifies, and the number of online orders continues to grow, delivery details need to be much more explicit. Through Fetchify’s Rooftop Geocodes feature, businesses can use geocodes to pinpoint an exact delivery location. Not only does a unique geocode provide a level of accuracy that a dropped pin doesn’t, but latitude and longitude coordinates support better logistics and route planning. And, when used with other mapping tools, it allows businesses to identify location-specific access restrictions and any other obstacles that may provide barriers to delivery. Eirecodes: Precision for Irish Addresses Capturing accurate Irish addresses is critical for reliable deliveries, especially in remote areas where inconsistent addressing can cause delays. Eircodes are Ireland’s official postcode system, and each Eircode is unique to a single building. That level of precision can’t be guessed at - it requires the official Eircode database to ensure accuracy. With Fetchify’s Eircodes data, businesses gain access to the most up‑to‑date Republic of Ireland ECAF dataset, sourced directly from Eircode. For those needing enhanced location detail, the optional ECAD data add‑on provides additional geocodes to further streamline delivery operations. Eirecodes Data removes ambiguity, cuts the time associated with delivery drivers trying to find an address, and ensures that there are no failed deliveries. A simple solution to a complicated problem According to a report , the average cost of a failed delivery stands at £148.21. When you consider that around 4.2 billion parcels were shipped in 2024, with around 1 per cent (42 million) being lost or damaged, as outlined in an article by The Standard , failed deliveries represent a significant cost for retailers. The solution? Enriched Data, of course. If you already use Fetchify, then no additional integration or configuration is required, as it works natively with our Address Auto-Complete plugins. Ready to turn addresses into strategic insights for your business? Our team can help you unlock the full benefits of Enriched Data - from Not-Yet-Built datasets to geocoding - each designed to tackle a different delivery challenge. Reach out to our team to discover how we can help you streamline your operations, cut administration costs, and give your business a competitive edge.