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What can Alias data do for your business?

Our latest data update adds over 3 million addresses to our UK database.

Our latest data update helps businesses connect with businesses.

Our latest data update has the coolest name of any data set yet (nice job Royal Mail)

Our latest data update brings you Alias Data

Sounds like something from a James Bond movie doesn’t it? The reality is perhaps not as exciting as car chases and shaken martinis but can be vital to businesses.

What is Alias data?

Alias address data is, quite simply, additional or alternative information, beyond the standard address format, which identifies a home or business.

Over 1 million delivery points in the UK have at least one additional Alias address.

Examples include:

  • a house that has both a name and a street number (eg The Vicarage, 12 Nice Street)

  • a home address which is also registered as a business address

  • an office that holds multiple companies

In fact, we are a perfect example. Fetchify’s office, 3 Switchback Office Park, Maidenhead, is home to us and two of our ClearCourse sister companies; Adelante and Instagiv. Thanks to the Alias data, the same office exists in the Royal mail database as distinct, independently searchable and deliverable records.

illustration showing the 4 business search results at number 3 Switchback Office Park

 

The new Alias dataset includes 4 types of additional address data:

  • Locality data – locally used names and PNR (postally not required) data such as the name of an area within a larger city for example Clapham in London.

  • Thoroughfare data – names for streets other than the official record, including unofficial, combined or alternative names used by locals

  • Delivery Point Alias data – building names, registered businesses, other identifying details beyond the street number

  • County Alias data – For a deeper explanation of why this even exists, check out our article about the strange world of English county names. But in short, there are multiple lists of county names. This data set allows you to search and validate addresses using historic, administrative or postal county names.


How do I get my business or home on the Alias Database?

If at this point you are wondering how to register your own Alias data with Royal Mail fear not, it happens automatically when you register your new business or change of business address with HMRC, for more information on how to do that, take a look at  gov.uk/set-up-business or gov.uk/government/publications/change-a-registered-office-address-ad01 respectively.

If you want to register an official name for your home as well as the street number, you will need to contact the department of your local authority that deals with the naming and numbering of streets and buildings. They will verify that the name is not already in use within the local area and will then apply to the Royal Mail for approval.

What does Alias data mean for businesses?

Well, naturally, adding 3 million addresses to your accessible database increases your audience reach and address validation capabilities by 3 million. But more specifically, as many Alias addresses belong to businesses, either in a shared office or small work-from-home businesses, this data is an invaluable addition for B2B. If your company provides a service for start-ups or side-hustles, for example, the new Alias data set will enable you to capture and validate accurate address data for your customers using Address Auto-Complete at registration or checkout.

For B2C businesses that deliver mostly to residential addresses, Alias data will have a great impact on your address finding and matching rate. Local and alternative details will now be searchable with address auto-complete, reducing customer frustration and friction during form-filling, giving your conversion that extra boost.

And now for the best part

You don’t have to do anything to gain access to Alias data (Unless you don’t yet have Fetchify integrated into your business systems, in which case why not start your free trial today). Our data team is always striving to bring you the best, most up-to-date and accurate global address data on the market. Alias data is now an integral part of our database for UK, available to all of our customers.

If you have any questions about our data or any other part of our service, get in touch at support@fetchify.com. Our team of experts is always happy to help.

 

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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 provide a full suite of data validation solutions including Phone Validation, Email Validation, UK Bank Validation, and Data Cleansing.