Ireland’s postcode network, Eircode, was established in July 2015. A seven-character alphanumeric postcode is known as an Eircode. Every Eircode is specific to a mailing address and its area.
In Ireland, almost 35% of properties share their address with at least one other residence, making it very difficult to locate a specific address. Unlike in other nations, where postcodes establish a group of addresses, each home and commercial postal address in Ireland is allocated an individual Eircode.
Eircode, like postcodes in other nations, aids the shipping and postal industries in locating accurate addresses. The Routing Key, the first three characters of the Eircode, specify the postal region associated with a building or property’s postal address. In Ireland, there are 139 separate postal regions. These postal areas are not limited to a single county and may cross over county lines.
How do Eircodes work?
A Routing Key and a Unique Identifier are the two elements of an Eircode. Three characters make up the Routing Key. The significant post town associated with a business or property’s postal address is identified by this sequence of numbers and letters. All Eircodes issued to locations within that postal region have the same Routing Key characters.
Each unique identification is distinct and specific to your residence or business. They aren’t in any particular order. This is to avoid a situation where a new building is built between two old ones, and the code sequence is disrupted, necessitating the changing of all Eircodes in the region.
Except for the postal districts in Dublin, which have had their current postal codes translated into a routing key format like as D03, D12, and D22, the letters are not related to a county or city designation.
What is the difference between Eircode and postcodes?
Postcodes and ZIP codes are numerical and alphabetical sequences that symbolise groups of people in specific geographical locations. Companies can use postcodes for a variety of key use cases because they are a strong resource of demographic data.
However, they frequently encompass several dwellings, making it more difficult to locate a customer’s proper location if homes are named rather than numbered.
Eircode, on the other hand, assigns a unique identity to every property in Ireland, making it easier to locate residences and companies, especially in rural areas.
Why use Eircodes for deliveries in Ireland?
The increase in online shopping is excellent news for online retailers, but with a primarily rural population, precisely locating clients in Ireland can be difficult. Any company delivering goods in Ireland must have Eircode data. Those who use the system to collect client information should expect to see:
A reduction in failed deliveries
It’s obvious that incomplete or inaccurate delivery details will result in failed deliveries. Eircode gives another level of concrete data to help shops and drivers deliver correctly and on time, hence enhancing last-mile success.
Customer experience
If your address lookup software can’t locate their address, Irish customers are likely to abandon their transaction. Making the checkout process as simple as feasible and providing extra data sets like Eircode would not only improve the customer experience, but also satisfy customers that their shipping information is valid and potentially increase conversions for your brand.
Reduced costs
As a business, providing proper delivery details to your courier operator ensures that you won’t be held accountable for unsuccessful deliveries. Some couriers will only cooperate with retailers who supply confirmed addressing data, or will give them a discount if they do.
Eircode validation and postcode lookup from Fetchify
ECAF (Eircode Address File) and ECAD (Eircode Address Database) can now be added to the Fetchify Address Auto-Complete as one of our premium data sets to guarantee 100% accurate address lookup and validation within Ireland with a database of over 32million addresses, resulting in quicker checkouts for customers and accurate delivery address for drivers.
To activate Eircodes on your Fetchify account please contact your account manager or our Customer Service team
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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.
