Fetchify provide the Workplace Depot with essential Postcode Lookup

"I don’t think we could be without Fetchify now. It’s an essential part of our business – particularly as we grow." – Steve Needham, Purchasing Manager

The Workplace Depot is a UK-based family run business, specialising in workplace products supply schools, universities, construction companies and even people doing a little DIY at home.

Everyone from the BBC to football teams and scout groups benefit from their services. Started 27 years ago by Ken Miller and originally named Central Source, the company started out creating print catalogues for their distributor network. Around 2010, they started their website and, what started as a small area of the business, has quickly grown to be their main channel. In 2019, they shifted fully online. With the change in name to more accurately reflect their business, the business has gone from strength to strength. Working entirely through their Magento website, they are now turning over roughly half a million pounds every month.

Our aim at Fetchify is to help your online customers to enter addresses correctly and quickly. For The Workplace Depot is means:

• Trustworthy and up to date address data including the latest new builds
• Saving admin time spent identifying incorrectly entered addresses
• Reduce failed deliveries caused by customer data errors

The challenges

With high volumes of orders going through the website and heading out for delivery every day, valuable time was lost in finding and verifying addresses based on incorrect or incomplete data entered at checkout. Providing workplace equipment, The Workplace Depot delivers to many new builds and construction sites, the addresses of which they were previously unable to search and verify, causing delays to deliveries.

They needed a reliable and regularly updated database to ensure the latest addresses would always be available. Their previous address validation provider simply didn’t update regularly enough to keep up with the ever-growing number of new builds and thousands of other changes to the UK’s address database every single day.

With hundreds of deliveries heading out every day, failed or delayed deliveries can easily become a real business pain point, costing The Workplace Depot time and money in administration and delayed deliveries.

"What we need is something that is very trustworthy and always up to date and Fetchify Postcode Lookup has always been brilliant for us."

How Fetchify helps

Fetchify is a pioneer in SaaS address lookup and validation solutions and offers a range of data verification solutions.

Recommended by The Workplace Depot’s own in-house tech consultant, Fetchify works with only the best data providers. In the UK that is the Royal Mail PAF database which Fetchify further supplements with Ordnance Survey and armed forces data. This is updated daily including the addition of new build details which The Workplace Depot say has been an “unbelievably helpful” addition to their business process. Integrating Fetchify’s postcode lookup guarantees The Workplace Depot is now capturing accurate and verified addresses at checkout every time.

Not only does this save admin time in finding and fixing data entry errors, it also eliminates failed deliveries caused by those errors. Where drivers would previously have needed to call back to head office asking for assistance in locating the delivery point, the addresses are now verified at point of entry, ensuring a smooth delivery and, ultimately, happy customers.

As a primarily B2B business based in the UK, The Workplace Depot chose to use Fetchify’s Postcode Lookup address validation solution. The simple interface is a household staple of UK-based online shopping.

"You put your postcode in, you the option to choose the house number and you click on that. I think people have got used to that and they expect it at every checkout."

The key benefits delivered by Fetchify’s Postcode Lookup are:

• Reliable data with daily updates
• Recognisable interface for a smoother customer journey through checkout
• Huge saving in admin time needed to verify addresses entered by customers at checkout
• Eliminated delays and failures in delivery caused by bad address data

"We get on average 200-300 orders a day. You can imagine for a driver, trying to check postcodes, it would just take all day. We can’t say with how pleased we are with you guys and what you do for us."

Results, return on investment and future plans



With Fetchify’s Postcode Lookup integrated into their checkout and eliminating the costs in time and money previously caused by errors in address data, The Workplace Depot’s technical and admin teams can use their time instead to focus on continuing to build and promote the brand. Fetchify are proud to be an integral part of The Workplace Depot’s business and support them as they continue to grow.