Green Logistics and Sustainable Fulfilment Start With Address Verification

Commitment by retailers to environmentally friendly practices is very important, not only with climate change accelerating, but also with 64 per cent of consumers considering environmental sustainability as one of their top three purchasing factors, according to the Simon-Kucher Sustainability Study.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that virtually all retailers are focused on actively reducing their carbon footprint, while optimising delivery efficiency and minimising waste to create more environmentally friendly supply chains, and also deliver a standout customer experience.

Despite the push for greener logistics challenges such as failed deliveries and returns, inefficient routing, and excessive packaging waste, contribute to an unnecessary environmental impact. This is largely due to issues around inaccurate customer addresses, which is important when around 20 per cent of addresses entered online contain errors. Also, customer data lacking regular intervention degrades at two per cent each month, meaning around 25 per cent of customer data on databases will become inaccurate over the course of a year as people move home, get divorced and pass away.

Commence address verification

To ensure accurate deliveries, first time, it’s vital to undertake address verification. This solves the issue of incorrect and incomplete customer addresses, helping retailers to avoid failed deliveries. This is particularly important when both return to sender and redelivery are not only damaging for the environment, but financially for retailers.

Address verification supports optimised routing, which leads to reduced miles driven per delivery, with lower fuel consumption and emissions, along with faster, more accurate deliveries. Something that’s vital when customers are accustomed to same or next day deliveries.

Furthermore, having the correct address reduces packaging waste, and therefore energy consumption, from returned or undeliverable goods, which helps retailers to meet corporate sustainability goals. 

Access to accurate addresses also aids precise sustainability tracking and reporting, because it better enables retailers to measure the environmental impact of their logistics and identify further areas for improvement.

And finally, with address verification powering a faster, more accurate and environmentally friendly approach to logistics, customer experience and satisfaction levels will be high, encouraging repeat custom and increased revenue. This is vital in today’s highly competitive retail marketplace.

Address lookup

To deliver accurate address verification it’s a good idea to start with an address lookup or autocomplete tool. They provide accurate address data in real-time by delivering a properly formatted, correct address when the user starts inputting theirs. Utilising such tools reduces the number of keystrokes required when typing an address by up to 81 per cent, resulting in the entire onboarding process being speeded up, which reduces the probability of the user not completing a purchase. 

Address verification is even more important with consumers increasingly shopping from international retailers, drawn by competitive pricing and unique products. However, with each country having its own address format this can cause logistics and fulfilment issues if the address is not properly standardised and validated. Tools like address lookup automatically convert international addresses into the correct format. Also, address verification services when implemented in batch across existing customer databases can identify missing or incorrect address components globally, and correct them, and thereby ensure parcels are accurately labelled for faster, more reliable deliveries.

Undertake geocoding

Once you have an accurate address this can be used to inform geocoding, which enhances last-mile delivery efficiency, further reducing delays in delivery and returns, and supporting efforts in sustainability. The benefit of geocoding technology is that it provides latitude and longitude – rooftop level – coordinates, which is important when different properties may share an address, such as a plot of land or the street edge of a driveway. It enables retailers to plan the most efficient delivery routes, further supporting their efforts in speeding up fulfilment and reducing carbon emissions. 

In summary

Sustainability in logistics is no longer just a trend—it’s a necessity. Address verification plays a critical role in reducing delivery inefficiencies, minimising waste, and lowering carbon emissions. By integrating address verification into their logistics strategies retailers can not only improve their environmental impact, but also enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency, and drive all-important growth.