A poor-quality address validation solution directly increases internal costs and diverts scarce and expensive resources to correcting unnecessary errors. These errors impact customer service, reputation and repeat business. The stories of frustration are often hidden within the business.
Any address validation solution that is incomplete or has inaccurate, ambiguous or badly formatted addresses – transfers the true costs of inaccuracy into your organisation. The issues include non-delivery, wrong delivery, delayed delivery, duplicate records, inability to link to other datasets and poor data structures hampering analysis.
The financial consequences include the cost of error correction, the cost of wasted driver time seeking addresses, poor customer service and lost customers. The truth of this is clearly demonstrated in the examples below and the comments of customers who have tried cheaper alternatives and then either returned to or turned to AFD to sort it out.
All address and location data used by AFD Software is correctly licensed, regularly updated and from authoritative sources. For Great Britain and Northern Ireland, we license datasets from the two key UK sources – Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey. Each of the c.32 million UK address records has a unique reference. International address data only comes from verifiable, tested and trusted sources.
Information is actively updated resulting in the best data available. For example, Royal Mail utilises its 90,000 postal workers to feedback changes to addresses they see as they walk the routes. This information along with customer feedback and reports of failed deliveries from large retailers lead to substantial and significant changes to the address file – including adding new addresses, making changes to existing ones, or removing old ones.
AFD’s solution finds it:
A non PAF based solution does not:
| Feature | AFD | Non PAF Other |
|---|---|---|
| Complete Data | ✓ | ✗ |
| Authoritative Sources | ✓ | ✗ |
| Facilitates Inter-Operability | ✓ | ✗ |
| Reduced Duplicates | ✓ | ✗ |
| Consistent Structures | ✓ | ✗ |
| Easy Data Appending | ✓ | ✗ |
| Apartments Included | ✓ | ✗ |
| New Builds Included | ✓ | ✗ |
| Rural Addresses Included | ✓ | ✗ |
| BFPO included | ✓ | ✗ |
| Correct Validation on Entry | ✓ | ✗ |
| Address Cleansing + Validate | ✓ | ✗ |
For Great Britain and Northern Ireland, we license authoritative datasets from the two key UK sources- Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey. This information is actively updated resulting in the best data available. Each of the c.32 million UK address records has a unique reference. International address data only comes from verifiable, tested and trusted sources.
Within this specialist field AFD provide access to a further c.900K specific flats and building unit numbers not available on the main Royal Mail PAF file. We also identify and provide full address data on over 300,000 newly built properties and still under construction properties. We have our eye firmly on completeness, accuracy and consistency in structure.
Any trustworthy database has consistent structure at its heart. All address data returned from AFD solutions is consistently structured – every time.
We’ve built an address cleansing engine able to correct flaws in existing and legacy address data. It results in the cleanest possible address data and enables you to ensure that each address added to your database is reliable and held in a consistent format.
Developers find AFD’s solutions easy and intuitive to integrate into any platform and any application. Support is only from real experts in our real HQ, dedicated to understanding and solving any issues raised.
Missing, outdated, inaccurate address data contains hidden ambiguity and delivers false positive matches.
Without UK and international postal address standards and structures it is difficult or impossible to pass data between systems effectively and to refer to external data sources such as credit reference agencies. The creation of duplicate records is more likely. It is difficult to append other data such as accurate geo-codes (or datasets relevant to your sector) to release the value at postcode or address level.
Crowd sourced addresses, or addresses “scraped” from the internet result in millions of missing addresses and poor address quality. Apartment, new builds and rural addresses are high risk. Where addresses are missing – validation is impossible – and error prone free text entry is the only option. This in turn creates the costly overhead of queries, poor service, non-delivery and attrition which professional address validation solutions are designed to prevent.
Of course, where the source address data is simply wrong – a “false positive” validation occurs.
What’s the cost to your organisation if incorrect bank details are entered and payments fail? Lost time, customer frustration, and potential regulatory exposure.
What’s the impact if a donor mistypes their address or payment details? Lost income, failed Gift Aid claims, and damaged supporter relationships.
What’s the cost if a driver can’t find the right delivery address? Increased fuel use, missed deliveries, returns, and unhappy customers.
What’s the risk if incoming data is inaccurate? Wasted processing, corrupted results, and poor business decisions.
What’s the cost if materials are sent to the wrong site? Project delays, wasted stock, and frustrated contractors.
What happens if a customer’s address is entered incorrectly? Invalid cover, compliance issues, and costly claim disputes.
What’s the impact if court papers or contracts are sent to the wrong address? Missed deadlines, reputational risk, and potential negligence claims.
What’s the cost if a patient’s address or contact details are wrong? Missed appointments, medication errors, and serious safeguarding risks.
What is the cost to a university if they cannot validate a student's address? Up to £50,000 in funding.
Helping thousands of organisations get address and contact data accurate is what The Postcode People at AFD Software are known for. Beyond this, one of AFD’s core objectives and a driving force behind the team is “to generate profits, and to use them creatively in the relief of suffering, the improvement of society, and furtherance of the Christian gospel.”
At AFD’s annual “Postcode Party” and Charity giveaway in December, we celebrated the incredible achievement of over £1.2 million donated in 2024 to 91 charities nominated by staff and directors.
These gifts have gone to support a diverse range of Manx, UK, and international charities – including those providing hope and help in remote and challenging parts of the world, supporting those struggling with financial difficulties, and offering compassion and opportunity to those with disabilities.
Tearfund is a Christian charity that partners with churches in more than 50 of the world’s poorest countries. They tackle poverty through sustainable development, responding to disasters and challenging injustice. They believe an end to extreme poverty is possible.
The donation from AFD will be used to upscale the Church and Community Transformation (CCT) program, with the goal of having 250,000 churches serve as active transformation centres in their communities by 2030. CCT aims to empower individuals, churches, and communities to break the cycle of poverty.
Sight Matters has supported the Isle of Man’s blind and visually impaired community since 1936, offering free, inclusive services. AFD’s donation will expand programs for young members, boosting confidence, independence, and enjoyment as the Younger Members’ Group continues to grow.
Christians Against Poverty (CAP) aim to inspire and equip churches across the UK to help people out of debt and poverty. In 2023, their Debt Help service helped an additional 21% of people become debt-free, helping transform their lives. At the event, CAP shared how donations from AFD have set free 1,163 people and their families from debt; people who are now living life in all its fullness thanks to this support. This year’s donation will continue to enhance and expand the service, delivering even greater support for clients through partner churches.
www.capuk.org
Mint Velvet was founded in 2009 by three friends who struggled to find the perfect balance of style and practicality on the high street. Identifying a gap in the market for “relaxed glamour” at accessible prices, they combined their unique products with smart retail strategies, growing their turnover to an impressive £140 million in under 15 years.
Their retail strategy was three-fold:
To ensure the online shopping experience reflected the excellence of their products and the high quality of their bricks-and-mortar outlets, Mint Velvet needed reliable technology. A crucial element of this process was ensuring every order was supported by an accurate delivery address.
We caught up with Jon Ashcroft, Technical Development Lead at Mint Velvet, to talk about the technologies supporting their continued growth:
“Our online store is built on Shopify; we are one of the larger UK websites using their e-commerce platform to serve our customers, with millions of visitors each year.
AFD’s address lookup solution is used to validate addresses during customer registration, when users add addresses to their address book, and for selecting a delivery address at checkout. This helps ensure that customer orders are being sent to an accurate address, minimising manual data errors introduced by customers.
Accurate address data from AFD’s solution also helps our logistics providers, who require customer addresses in specific formats. Given today’s fast delivery expectations, having accurate addresses is critical. AFD’s solution enables customers to quickly and accurately find their address using just their postcode or first line of address. This simplicity improves the checkout experience and reduces friction, benefiting both customers and our internal operations.”
AFD’s address verification API integrates seamlessly with Shopify. Highlighting the importance of a smooth integration, Jon explains: “When implementing an address validation solution, we had two options: develop our own extension and application, or test an existing solution provided by AFD. We opted to test AFD’s Shopify integration, and it worked flawlessly. Following a brief testing phase, the solution was live in production. The process was as simple as checking a box, adding our license details, and activating the service.”
When asked about Jon’s experience of working with AFD, he confirmed: “AFD’s support team provided clear and effective guidance whenever we had a question, and their communication skills truly stood out. In an era where most customer support involves automated responses and chatbots, we especially valued the personal, human interaction.
Does your online shopping setup give your customers a great experience AND collect accurate data? AFD’s solutions are ready to speed up and help ensure address data is captured accurately across major e-commerce platforms and applications.
Get in touch today to discuss your specific requirements with The Postcode People on 0333 433 0711
or email postcode@afd.co.uk
www.afd.co.uk/address-lookup
www.afd.co.uk/shopify
www.mintvelvet.com
We serve thousands of organisations and a network of hundreds of partners across multiple industry sectors, enabling them to have full confidence in their contact data.