Omnichannel shopping continues to reshape the retail domain. With geospatial intelligence, retailers are delivering an exceptional omnichannel shopping experience with convenience-driven functionalities like:

• Faster online checkouts
• Inventory transparency
• Nearest store locations with features like appointment booking and in-store offers

In a highly competitive retail sector, an incorrect delivery address can be a significant “pain point” that negatively impacts the customer experience. Whether it’s a typing mistake or an incorrect apartment number, a wrong address can easily frustrate shoppers and result in lost revenue.

Here are the latest statistics to highlight the severity of this problem:

• 25% of failed deliveries occur because of inaccurate or outdated addresses.
• 84% of retail customers are unlikely to buy from the same retail brand after just one bad delivery experience.
• 66% of shoppers expect same-day deliveries as an industry norm rather than any premium option.

Read on to find out how Google’s Address Validation API can address this problem.

How the Google Address Validation API works

The Google Address Validation API offers a smart way to validate any address provided by customers during the sign-up and checkout process. This API can identify any inaccurate address by spotting missing or unconfirmed components. By using Google’s location intelligence platform, this Google API can standardize the address format, from correcting any typos to filling a missing address component (like a street name).

How does this Google API actually work? Besides validating the correct address, this API retrieves accurate metadata of the mentioned address that includes components such as the Place ID and geocode. In selected areas, the Address Validation API can also identify a residential address from a commercial location, which is necessary to deliver packages to offices during business hours. It can also aggregate address-related data from various sources, including postal services. 

Here are some of the key benefits of the Google Address Validation API in the real world:

1. Retailers: In this sector, companies can reduce customer friction at checkout by allowing them to rectify any incorrect delivery address. This saves retailers from the high costs and time spent on cancelled orders or product returns.  
2. Transport and logistics: Companies in this industry can improve order delivery by ensuring that packages reach the right destination. They can also save valuable time during peak season and predict challenges faced by drivers.
3. Financial services: These companies can use this API to validate a new customer’s proof of address during the account sign-up process, thus eliminating fraudulent customer accounts.

In a competitive retail domain, companies can leverage this Address Validation API to address a variety of common issues, such as:

• Standardize the format of the address during real-time customer entry.
• Suggest an automatic correction during entry and complete missing field information.
• Validate the order deliverability and flag any potential errors.
• Retrieve metadata information such as geolocation, zip code, and status (residential or commercial property).

Here’s an interactive retail demo from Google that demonstrates how this API works:

• Correcting incorrect address inputs.
• Completing any partial or incomplete entries.
• Ensuring clean, high-quality address data.

Why Onix is the preferred Google Maps partner for retailers

As a reliable Google Maps partner, Onix is helping retailers with a host of location-based services for improved customer experience. By integrating this Address Validation API on a location intelligence platform, our team can help you enhance your operational efficiency.

By partnering with Onix, retailers will see a host of benefits, including:

• Smoother checkout process by identifying and resolving manual errors.
• Reduced delivery failures and reshipment expenses.
• Improved logistics and delivery routing.
• Data cleanups in legacy systems.

With our expertise in Google Maps and AI/ML technology, we can help you optimize your retail operations. Want to know how? Contact us today.