Postcode News

Style, Integration, and Transformation

Happy New Year from The Postcode People at AFD Software – we hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas break.

In this edition of Postcode News, we feature the fashion retailer Mint Velvet to better understand the importance accurate address data plays in enhancing the online shopping experience for their millions of customers.

In December, we celebrated AFD Software’s 2024 Charity Event, marking over £1.2 million donated to 91 charities worldwide. These contributions, multiplied by the tireless work of these charities, are making a transformative impact on many lives across the world.

Velvety Smooth Integration

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.”

Mint Velvet Shop
Mint Velvet Shop

Seamless Shopify Solution

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.”  

Shopify Logo

Clear and Effective

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.

The implementation of AFD’s solution has made a significant improvement to our whole checkout process, with better accuracy and reliability for both the customer journey and Mint Velvet’s operations.

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

Making a difference

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.

Image of three Charities

Three of the charities shared inspiring stories of the impact their work is making and how the donations have been or will be utilised.

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.

www.tearfund.org

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.

www.sightmatters.im

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

All the charity organisations the Postcode People have partnered with in 2024 by means of a donation, and the incredible work they do, can be seen at:  www.afd.co.uk/charity

HotSpot

Jonathan Stocks,
Head of Sales & Marketing

Jonathan realised the importance of getting to the right address at the right time when he had to ring for directions from the taxi on the way to his AFD interview back in 2008!

Since then, Jonathan has helped and continues to help specify and recommend the right AFD products and services for hundreds of users – from Universities and Colleges trying to keep track of their fast-moving student populations, to some of the UK’s largest logistics companies, moving hundreds of thousands of parcels to the right destinations, on-time and with maximum routing efficiency.

16 years on, Jonathan’s leadership in initiating new products and services, and within the sales and senior management teams, still give him enormous job satisfaction.

Staying active outside of work, Jonathan likes to keep fit in various ways; if he’s not tearing up the five-a-side football pitch, he is in the squash courts, on the jet ski, or stand-up paddleboard. Jonathan’s family and social life are very important to him, often hosting BBQs or homemade pizza at the weekend.

Favourite holiday destination? Abersoch in North Wales holds that title as not only the destination for Jonathan’s wedding but continuing holidays to the Llŷn Peninsula with his family.

Data News Q1/25 - PAF Changes

Between July and September 2024, there were significant updates to data on PAF. These included 13 new localities, 6,415 new postcodes, 101,758 new delivery points, and 18,033 delivery point changes.

Postcode

Double Dependant Locality

Dependant Locality

Post Town

BT93 0

OGHILLICARTAN

LACK

ENNISKILLEN

CB7 7

STUNTNEY

ELY

DD4 0

NEWBIGGING

TEALING

DUNDEE

DE4 2

SLALEY

BONSALL

MATLOCK

HG3 4

PADSIDE

HARROGATE

LE17 4

ASHBY PARVA

LUTTERWORTH

NE48 2

MART FIELD

BELLINGHAM

HEXHAM

RH10 3

FORGE WOOD

CRAWLEY

SN4 0

BURDEROP PARK

SWINDON

The most up-to-date PAF data is available now in our latest Q.1/25 update. You can order updates for any AFD software solution by calling 0333 433 0711 or emailing postcode@afd.co.uk.

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We are here to help

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.