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.

About Fetchify


Fetchify’s address lookup and data validation platforms cover more than 250 countries, and increases customer conversion with the fastest, most accurate customer data capture. Fetchify’s flagship products – Address Auto Complete and Postcode Lookup – reduce friction at the checkout, and also significantly increase the number of successful deliveries. Founded in 2008, Fetchify processes millions of data transactions every day for clients ranging from startups to established high-street names, and offers a full suite of data validation tools, including phone, email and bank, too.

June 30, 2025
An article in Ecommerce News recently put a number to something every online retailer dreads: lost parcels. In Q4 2024 alone, European ecommerce retailers lost €500 million in revenue due to 3.72 million undelivered parcels. That’s roughly €145 per parcel in direct and indirect logistics costs. And while the official rate of “lost” parcels is just 0.06%, the reality – accounting for misdelivery, theft, and reporting gaps – is likely closer to 0.7%. That’s 1 in every 143 parcels. The Hidden Costs of a 'Lost' Delivery For enterprise-scale ecommerce operations, the implications scale fast: Lost product and packaging costs Repeat fulfilment and reverse logistics Customer service team time and refunds Increased churn and checkout abandonment Damage to brand reputation and online reviews So Why Are Parcels Going Missing? Many issues originate in the last mile of the delivery process. The root cause is often poor data quality: Incomplete or inaccurate delivery addresses captured at checkout Manual amendments to address fields by warehouse or courier staff Ambiguous delivery locations (e.g., "front porch") Lack of precise geolocation data for drop-off Inadequate or unverifiable proof of delivery Some losses are unavoidable, but most stem from gaps in ecommerce data validation and fulfilment process transparency. What Retailers Can Control with Smart Logistics Data While you can’t eliminate theft or accidents, you can reduce missed deliveries and failed first attempts through better data validation and delivery insights: Real-Time Address Validation at Checkout Fetchify’s ecommerce address validation tools connect directly with official data sources including Royal Mail PAF and the Multiple Residence dataset. This ensures accurate delivery details for apartment blocks, HMOs, student housing, and more. Unlike generic autocomplete tools, this is verified delivery point data. Rooftop-Accurate Geocoding for Pinpoint Delivery Fetchify’s Rooftop Geocodes assign precise latitude and longitude to verified addresses – helping carriers reach the exact doorstep, not just the postcode centroid. Proof of Delivery with Location and Time Stamping Our data solutions integrate seamlessly with POD technologies, supporting timestamped, geo-tagged delivery images. Customers can also submit geo-located photos during disputes, enabling faster, fairer resolutions. Map-Based Address Confirmation for Shoppers By embedding a zoomed-in map in the checkout process, ecommerce brands allow customers to visually confirm their delivery location. This prevents ambiguous or misentered addresses from the start. Audit Trails and Address Change Tracking Fetchify tracks address field edits and changes across the fulfilment chain, helping to pinpoint where a delivery went wrong and maintain data accountability. Marginal Gains. Major Ecommerce Impact. Smart logistics and address data validation might only reduce parcel loss by fractions of a percent – but the impact is huge: A 0.1% improvement = thousands of saved parcels = millions in recovered revenue Fewer failed deliveries = less pressure on customer support teams Accurate addresses = better first-time delivery success and lower last-mile costs Conclusion: Delivery Accuracy is a Data Challenge Lost parcels aren’t just a logistics challenge. They’re a symptom of poor data validation in ecommerce. From checkout to doorstep, the journey must be powered by precise, verified data. Fetchify helps online retailers solve this problem with address validation, geolocation, and enhanced fulfilment transparency. If you want to stop asking “Whose front door is this?” – start with smarter ecommerce data. Want to improve delivery success and reduce failed parcels? Contact Fetchify to book your free address data health check.
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