New Zealand Post Address Validation: Benefits, Limitations, and a Better Alternative
According to the statistics by Fill The Gap, 48% of organizations in New Zealand have lost revenue due to inaccurate customer data, and 40% have experienced a decrease in customer retention. Additionally, 30% of companies don’t know how much bad address data costs them. Keeping this into consideration, New Zealand Post has designed an address validation solution to maintain quality data and minimize the possibility of undeliverability.
In this blog, we will learn about this tool and its benefits. We will also learn its shortcomings and know what makes PostGrid Address Verification the right alternative.
Key Takeaways
- Courier Address Database is the address validation service offered by NZPost. Through its API, it offers single and bulk address cleansing. It also offers an address and postcode finder.
- The tool minimizes the possibility of misdeliveries and delays. The autocomplete suggestion speeds up the checkout process. It also provides highly specific details to ensure accurate delivery.
- It is only useful for addresses within New Zealand. It also does not provide real-time data and geocodes. Moreover, implementing API will require technical know-how.
- PostGrid Address Verification offers a comprehensive solution to check the accuracy and completeness of locations around the world. Additionally, you can ensure correct delivery with its rooftop coordinates.
What is New Zealand Post Address Validation?
NZ Post, the national postal service provider of New Zealand, offers an address validation solution called the Courier Address Database (CAD). It has the largest database, containing over three million records. Users can utilize it to get the most accurate details and ensure correct deliveries.
Aside from basic information like postcode and suburb, it also provides delivery run numbers. It contains the delivery point validation (DPV) identifier and indicates whether the place is residential or commercial. This improves accuracy and speeds up parcel sorting.
After verifying the details, you can use it with any NZPost online services. This will save time from entering information again when registering to use them. Businesses can access this service in the following ways:
- Parcel Address API: You can integrate this with your website or existing customer database software to check details within New Zealand. It also provides a type-ahead address autocomplete feature to improve delivery performance.
- Offline Documents: This is an offline extract of the CAD, which you can download to access reliable data without any risk of service disruption.
Address Cleansing
NZPost also offers address cleansing to improve data quality across multiple departments and reduce the possibility of returned mail. Moreover, bulk verification provides an Assessment of Address Accuracy Percentage tool. This shows the percentage of correct addresses per database that are valid matches against the NZ Post Postal Address File (PAF). If the accuracy rate is 80% or above, the postal service provider can deliver your mail efficiently and accurately.
Address and Postcode Finder
You can use it to look up the correct suburb, postcode, and city for an address. You can also use it to check the right way to format the details when verifying through the official tool. Moreover, it also provides the delivery location on an electronic map. To manually look up postcodes, you can check the Postcode directory from Post shops and the NZ Post Customer Service Center.
Common Address-Related Challenges Leading to Failed or Delayed Deliveries in New Zealand
Incomplete Address
CAD relies heavily on complete and accurate addresses to make correct deliveries. However, missing important details like street numbers, suburbs, or postal codes might lead to delivery failure. The shipping carriers might hold the package, return it to the sender, or deliver it to the wrong location.
Non-Standardized Address Formats
NZPost has strict rules regarding how to enter the address when sending a package. Urban regions follow a standard format; however, rural areas have a Rural Address Property Identification (RAPID). If the sender uses a non-standard format, it might confuse the automated system and the courier drivers.
Customer Relocation Without Updating Address
As per Infometrics, 456,500 individuals changed their residence between 2021 and 2022. However, problems arise when people forget to update their new address in the National Change of Address database. Packages get sent to the wrong place, leading to loss. If you cannot arrange the redirection on time, it might cause a delay.
New or Unmapped Development
Every few months, new housing zones and commercial centers are developing in New Zealand. However, the courier service providers might not have these new areas in the database used by the couriers. GPS and route optimization software might not recognize these details, resulting in failed deliveries. This might also demand manual intervention to correct the mistakes, which can delay the delivery.
Ambiguous or Duplicate Street Names
The same street names exist in multiple towns and regions. If the address does not mention the name of the suburb or city, the parcel may get routed incorrectly. Take, for instance, Queen Street, which exists in multiple places in New Zealand. Unless you have specified Auckland or Masterton, a delivery might end up in the wrong place.
How to Write the Correct New Zealand Address Format?
The first step to ensuring correct delivery is writing the details accurately. For domestic addresses, you must follow the guidelines set out by NZ Post. According to them, you must write it in the following way.
| Name of the Recipient | Jack Harper |
| Street Number and Name | 234 Clarence Street |
| Suburb Town | Vogeltown |
| City and Postcode | Wellington 1324 |
If you want to send mail to New Zealand from abroad, you must follow the UPU format. It is an agency of the United Nations that specializes in maintaining global postal harmony, and New Zealand is one of its members. As a part of its cross-border mail and package delivery service, it has laid down a standardized format. The whole format is the same as a domestic layout; however, you must add the country name in the last line. Additionally, to help postal workers distinguish domestic mail from international mail, UPU advises capitalizing all the elements. Hence, an address sent from a foreign country will look like this.
| Name of the Recipient | JACK HARPER |
| Street Number and Name | 234 CLARENCE STREET |
| Suburb Town | VOGELTOWN |
| City and Postcode | WELLINGTON 1324 |
| Country Name | NEW ZEALAND |
Also Read: How Can You Benefit From Using NZ Post Address Validation?
Fewer Failed Deliveries
When users enter their location, the NZPost address validation solution checks it instantly against the official database. If the details are misspelled, incomplete, or do not exist, the system prompts the user to correct them. Since it prevents invalid details from entering the source, it reduces the possibility of delivery failures.
Moreover, the NZPost address validation solution ensures that the information follows the official format. This minimizes the confusion in the logistics system and enhances sorting accuracy. This also helps the automated carrier and last-mile delivery team find the residence without manual intervention or guesswork.
Reduce Operational Cost
In case of an invalid or incomplete address, the shipping carrier might return the package to the sender. This requires additional processing and storage. Additionally, certain carriers like UPS charge an extra fee for correction. What further increases the expense is that you have to reship the item. With accurate details, delivery drivers do not have to make multiple trips or chase down the recipient. This will bring down the fuel and labor costs.
Faster Checkout and Fewer Cart Abandonments
One reason customers abandon their carts is the time and effort it takes to type the complete address. However, the NZ Post address validation solution reduces this friction. It suggests type-ahead autocomplete suggestions directly from the official database. This reduces the number of keystrokes and saves time. Since there is less friction, the checkout process becomes smoother, and customers can complete it faster.
Manual entry leads to typos, missing suburbs, or incorrect postal codes. The NZPost address validation solution provides a verified, accurate location through the autocompletion feature. This eliminates annoying error messages and prevents customers from re-entering the details.
Better Data Quality
The tool formats addresses according to the NZPost database, ensuring consistency, such as proper suburb names, postcodes, and street suffixes across the database. If a customer forgets to add a part of their address, the system intelligently suggests or autocompletes the correct details. This will ensure that no partial or incomplete record can enter your CRM or ERP.
It also provides metadata such as whether the details are residential, rural, business, or PO box. This adds another layer of specific information, which can prove useful in logistics, planning, and customer segmentation. With a clean and enriched database, the postal service ensures packages get delivered to the right place on time. This prevents returns and customer complaints.
Improved Customer Experience
The tool ensures the package gets sent to the correct location on the first attempt. When customers receive packages without any delay, they are satisfied with the business. When they know they can trust the checkout and delivery process, they are more likely to return. This increases loyalty and leads to a higher customer lifetime value.
Bulk Cleansing
Businesses typically have a large set of address data to manage. However, manual cleaning can be time-consuming and error-prone and demands an extensive investment of resources. The NZPost address validation allows multiple data uploads from CRM, ecommerce platforms, and marketing lists, and cleanses them. This speeds up the validation process. This will also enable you to serve more customers without increasing the cost associated with the manual data cleansing of several addresses.
Know the Type of Address
Certain courier service providers charge more for residential or rural regions compared to business locations. By telling the type of address in advance, the NZPost address validation solution can help you determine accurate shipping costs. You can use the insights to choose the most cost-effective shipment method. Additionally, the delivery window for residential or rural areas is different from commercial zones. With the indicator, you can provide a realistic delivery window to the customers. This transparency will reduce “Where is my parcel?” queries and build trust.
Provides Premise-Level Details
The NZPost address validation solution provides premise-level data down to the apartment number. This is helpful if there are multi-unit buildings or shared spaces. The highly specific data ensures that the packages reach the right unit and not just the entrance of the building. The exact, validated address of the apartment reduces the possibility of duplicates, inconsistencies, and vague entries. Aside from exact deliveries, this enriched data helps in customer reporting and segmentation.
Match Score
It is a numerical value that indicates how closely the submitted address matches the known and valid information in the database. It will help you quantify the accuracy or completeness of the location. This will make it easy to catch the errors despite its close approximation. It will ensure accurate deliveries. Moreover, it will also enhance the checkout experience. It will offer suggestions based on match accuracy instead of rejecting whole strings because of misspellings or typos. This will speed up the checkout process and satisfy the customer.
What Does the NZ Post Address Validation Solution Lack?
No Real-Time Data
Old data might not reflect recent address changes such as renamed streets, renumbered buildings, or postcode changes. This might lead to delivery failures as packages will be sent to the old location. The redeliveries and returns will increase the operational cost and the workload for the customer service and logistics team.
Moreover, without real-time updates, new subdivisions, states, or commercial properties may not exist in the database. The checkout form might flag these details as invalid or undeliverable, frustrating customers in new housing developments.
Restricted to New Zealand
If you have clients in the overseas markets, the NZ Post address validation solution might be restrictive. It does not offer services beyond New Zealand. Without this, international customers may enter invalid or incomplete addresses. The fulfillment team may ship to an incorrect location, leading to failed international delivery.
Similarly, its autocomplete, RDI, and DPV features work for locations within New Zealand. The global customers will have to type everything. This will lead to a slower and more error-prone checkout process. This will increase customer frustration and the cart abandonment rate.
Setup Requires Technical Expertise
If your team does not have developers familiar with API integrations, you might face challenges in understanding NZPost’s technical documentation. The difficulty in setting up API keys and implementing the service might lead to a slower go-to-market for new ecommerce features.
Additionally, you might miss opportunities during peak sales periods. Small businesses or service providers might find it challenging and skip the integration altogether. This can lead to poor data quality and an increase in failed deliveries.
No Geocoding Data
It is important to know the coordinates of the place to ensure accurate delivery. Geocodes also prove useful in route optimization. Without this, you cannot calculate the most efficient delivery route, which will delay the deliveries. Moreover, there is a possibility that apartment and building names and numbers in one street might be the same. In this situation, not having coordinate data might increase the chances of a delivery agent going to the wrong address.
What Makes PostGrid the Right Alternative?
| Factors | PostGrid Address Verification | NZ Post Address Validation |
| Modes of Usage | You can use it in three ways:
Integrate the well-documented REST API with CRM. Use the solution directly from the website. |
It is only available as an API, with documents requiring a technical expert to understand them. |
| Global Address Verification | You can verify addresses of over 245 countries and territories. | You can only verify addresses within New Zealand. |
| Use Case | It is suitable for businesses of all types that are operating in a global market. | It will work well for businesses with clients and customers in New Zealand. |
| Latitudinal and Longitudinal Data | It provides rooftop and reverse coordinate data, pinpointing the exact location of the customer’s residence. | It does not provide geocoding data. |
Verify Addresses Across the Globe With PostGrid
A tool that only allows checking addresses for one country can be restrictive. If you rely on NZ Post, you must invest in another tool for global validation. PostGrid Address Verification will save you money by providing verified, accurate, standardized, and complete details of places worldwide. It will also pinpoint the exact latitudinal and longitudinal information to ensure accurate delivery on the first attempt. To see us in action, request a demo now.
