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Fetchify & SportsOnline increase checkout completions for 12 years not out

Fetchify makes the checkout process so much quicker. You know how impatient people are and every time they go to a checkout and have to type everything out you risk losing them.

Jamie Harvey

Managing Director
SportsOnline cricket-hockey.com

Established in 1999, SportsOnline is a family-run business selling cricket and hockey sports equipment internationally from www.cricket-hockey.com as well as a bricks-and-mortar shop and warehouse in Wiltshire, UK.

They launched their first online shop in 2000, one of the first cricket and hockey specialists to be online, they’ve grown exponentially to one of the world’s largest cricket and hockey retailers, dispatching tens of thousands of orders worldwide every year. They also produce their own highly successful cricket and hockey equipment range – Funky. Famed for their service and expertise, it’s no wonder there’s a great match with Fetchify.

Having installed Postcode Lookup from CraftyClicks (the previous name of Fetchify) in 2008, they recently updated to Fetchify’s global solution, Address Auto-Complete, as they grow internationally with sales to Australia, New Zealand, US, Netherlands and Germany in particular.

Fetchify is installed via a plugin for their eCommerce platform, PrestaShop, which they run completely in-house.

Fetchify helps SportsOnline achieve:

  • Increased conversion rates from a faster checkout
  • Improved overall customer service due to fewer addressing errors
  • Reduced customer frustration and wait times
  • Reduced administration issues caused by shipping


The challenges

Prior to installing Fetchify, SportsOnline were frustrated by the amount of customer-led data errors in address entries. These issues have been resolved by installing first the Postcode Lookup and then the Address Auto Complete plugins ensuring only verified addresses can be input.

 The amount of people who type the wrong postcodes and then three days later ask, “Where’s my order?” is surprising. Put that with mistyping house numbers as well – it was not good. It’s always easier when you can select it, isn’t it. 

Another challenge easily solved was how to continue when SportsOnline decided to upgrade their eCommerce platform to PrestaShop. A phone call was made to Fetchify to find our ready-made plugin for Prestashop already created and ready for instant use. Fetchify have ready-made plugins for most major eCommerce platforms and they can be easily customized for non-standard use.

 After 12 years of use, SportsOnline have never had to contact Fetchify for technical issues. The only time we’ve made contact was for the original install and then update for PrestaShop. Nothing goes wrong with it! 

How Fetchify helps

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

Address Auto-Complete is a simple plugin that is easy to install and supports your online customers to ensure their address is correct every time. It also speeds up the checkout process.

The key benefits delivered by Address-Auto Complete are:

  • Addresses are easy and fast to add to registration or order pages
  • The source of addresses updates daily for accuracy
  • Fetchify verifies the address for accuracy and correct postal formatting


Results, return on investment and future plans

Having used the automatic address completion plugin tool from Fetchify, SportsOnline have enjoyed a greater number of checkout conversions – faster and easier address entry for buyers which means a better conversion to the payment stage.

A recent conversion to the PrestaShop eCommerce platform and greater international sales required a change to the international version of Address Auto-Complete to cater for their buyers all around the world.

 We’ve never received a customer complaint about address entry since installing Fetchify. It’s only increased our conversion and given us less admin to do! 

About Fetchify

We are a pioneer in SaaS address lookup and data validation solutions. We process millions of data transactions each day for thousands of clients ranging from small e-commerce startups to large household brands such as Heinz and RBS. Our flagship products Address Auto-Complete and Postcode Lookup reduce friction on checkouts,  leading to increases in conversion rate of up to 40%, and helps reduce failed deliveries by as much as 75%. Since launching in 2008, we have differentiated by our ease of integration and exceptional support. We recently introduced three new data validation solutions – Email Validation, Phone Validation and UK Bank Account Validation.