{"id":5261,"date":"2020-12-14T15:07:54","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T09:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/?p=5261"},"modified":"2022-10-20T12:36:22","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T07:06:22","slug":"shipping-address-ecommerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/shipping-address-ecommerce\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Address Correction For E-Commerce Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The shipping address problem in Indian e-commerce is a unique scenario. This arises mainly due to the diversity in geographies, languages and user behaviour across different regions in India.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this article, we will be looking at some problems that are specific to India, how e-commerce businesses are affected by it, and best practices to overcome this problem. We will also be introducing Razorpay Thirdwatch\u2019s industry-first feature, <\/span><b>Address Correction<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, to help e-commerce businesses tackle the problem of losses from incorrect and non-deliverable shipping addresses.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The address system in India<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Addresses are one of the fundamental concepts by which people perceive locations in the modern world. Correct shipping addresses are especially important for e-commerce business to run their operations smoothly. At a broader level, addresses can be classified into two categories:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Relative addresses<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Refers to the addresses that are defined as a consequence of landmarks\/points of interest near them.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An example: \u201cAcross the street from Tanto\u2019s, Auroville, Pondicherry.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Absolute addresses<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Refers to addresses that are identified by their own location\/name.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An example: \u201cNo.231, 2nd cross, Lloyds Road, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India-600014.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has 35 states and Union Territories, approximately 650 districts, about 6000 tehsil\/towns and 30,000 postcodes. The administrative hierarchy in India is as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>State \u2192 District \u2192 Tehsil\/town \u2192 Ward \u2192 Locality\/village \u2192 Sub-locality \u2192 Block\/pocket<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Addresses come in a variety of formats all across the country. However, here are some commonly found elements in an Indian address:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Person\u2019s name<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Can sometimes be a primary identifier, especially in smaller cities and towns. In some cases, packages may also be addressed with an alternative person of contact under \u2018c\/o&#8217; or \u2018care of\u2019<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>House or building name\/number<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Unlike Western addresses and geography, some Indian regions such as Kerala have house \u2018names\u2019 for identification purposes<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Street name<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Refers to a street name in a particular ward that acts as an identifier in the address. In case of Tier 3 cities and villages without defined lanes\/avenues, street names are usually missing and can become a bigger problem for e-commerce sellers<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Area\/locality: <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Refers to a sub-locality within a village\/town\/city. A group of areas\/localities are usually categorized under one pincode<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also read: <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn\/the-beginners-guide-to-acing-e-commerce-shipping\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Beginner\u2019s Guide to Acing E-Commerce Shipping<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disadvantages of the Indian address system<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The address system in India, while in operation, is flawed in many aspects. Let\u2019s look at how it works:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Addresses in India are spatially captured only on demand, rather than homogenous capturing. This leads to irregularities in address capturing and identification<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A considerable portion of streets in Tier 3 cities and small towns with no names or unstructured addresses<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Presence of unstructured areas such as slums that keep frequently shifting, making it difficult to keep track<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of reference datasets or GIS data infrastructure, making it difficult to build a GPS system in remote locations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of a comprehensive, hierarchical data structure in smaller cities and towns<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Faulty addresses- A closer look<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An address can be declared \u2018faulty\u2019 due to a plethora of reasons. Whether it is incomplete, ambiguous or simply, non-existent, it will be categorized under a faulty or \u2018risky\u2019 address.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These faulty addresses are one of the major reasons behind RTO or Return to Origin losses for e-commerce businesses. In an attempt to achieve last-mile delivery with these faulty addresses, companies lose millions every year in shipping back undeliverable orders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some reasons why an address is considered faulty:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Unnecessary information <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; For example&#8211; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">26 Mahatma Gandhi Road (on weekdays), Raheja Towers (on weekends), Dhule, Maharashtra, India\u201d<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Ambiguity <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; For example&#8211; Sarjapur road, Bangalore (come to the tea shop and ask for XYZ and they will guide you)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Spelling errors<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; More often than not, spelling errors in shipping addresses can be dangerous for e-commerce businesses. Spelling errors can cause confusion in addresses and can lead to potential returns.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong>Invalid addresses<\/strong> &#8211; <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Addresses that do not specify details such as house number, street or certain inroads, addresses that do not have matching pincodes, etc. are also considered faulty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Incomplete addresses<\/strong> &#8211; <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example&#8211; Mr. Rahul Singh, Raj Bhavan, Chandigarh&#8211; is an incomplete and vague address that simply cannot be delivered due to the lack of elements such as pincode, contact details, street name, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Poor explanation of landmarks<\/strong> &#8211; <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example&#8211; 21, North Crescent lane, opposite to blue building, Pune, Maharashtra&#8211; can cause confusion to the delivery personnel who may not be familiar with the area as a local postman would.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The impact of bad addresses on e-commerce businesses<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>[bctt tweet=&#8221;The economic impact of bad addresses in India is significant: EmergingWorld\u2019s estimate from the top industries indicate that poor addresses cost India $10-14B annually or ~0.5% of the GDP.&#8221; username=&#8221;&#8221;]<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5263\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5263\" style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5263 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Frame-3-1024x614.png\" alt=\"shipping address e-commerce\" width=\"770\" height=\"462\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.razorpay.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Frame-3-1024x614.png 1024w, https:\/\/blog.razorpay.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Frame-3-300x180.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.razorpay.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Frame-3-768x461.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.razorpay.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Frame-3-1536x922.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5263\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In-picture: How shipping address affects e-commerce delivery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From our shipping address observations across the e-commerce industry, we have processed at least 15 million unique addresses till date and there are many disparities that we noticed&#8211; local abbreviations, colloquial neighborhood names, points-of-interest, embedded unclear directions and variations due to local languages being transliterated in English for writing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To top it all off, studies show that on average, 20-30% of written pin-codes are incorrect. This can put a significant strain on business as any e-commerce company trying to optimize their operations cannot do so without knowing where they need to deliver their product.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, it\u2019s clear that in the absence of an accurate location of your customer\u2019s delivery address, it becomes harder to:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create routes for the \u201clast-mile\u201d delivery personnel<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Decide which Delivery Centre should perform the \u201clast-mile\u201d of the delivery<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Decide which Destination Hub should the shipment fly to<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Achieve successful delivery rates, since RTO rates shoot up due to unsuccessful orders<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How Thirdwatch is solving the address issue<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We, at Razorpay <a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/thirdwatch\/\">Thirdwatch<\/a>, are ecstatic to inform the latest addition to our Thirdwatch AI suite- Address Correction. As elucidated above, the address problem in India is a unique one, with many different variations of addresses across different states.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0It is also a known fact that a good portion of RTO orders is caused due to incomplete and non-deliverable addresses. This can be due to the diversity in addresses in different regions in India. So, what\u2019s the way out?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the all-new address correction feature, you don\u2019t have to worry about these incorrect addresses and returns due to them. This feature will help e-commerce businesses identify the risk reason behind an order, filter out risky orders according to incomplete\/incorrect addresses, and then send the customer a message to correct the address.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Identifying risky shipping addresses for your e-commerce store can significantly cut down return rates and improve deliverability and success rates across your business. With our vast database of addresses that we have processed, Thirdwatch\u2019s AI engine helps you accurately identify and correct these incomplete addresses in question.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s better? Thirdwatch\u2019s accuracy gets better with time. The Thirdwatch engine adapts to your business needs and improves with time, providing you detailed insights and easy ways to communicate with your customers about non-deliverable addresses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through <a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn\/digital-payments-india-definition-methods-importance\/\">Order Confirmations<\/a>, you can additionally send confirmation messages via SMS, email and IVRS to double-verify and prevent losses. Here are some more things you can do with Address Correction:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Automate address updation and order confirmations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Decrease chances of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/ecommerce-business-cost-saving-rto-fraud\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RTO\/cancellation by upto 30%<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regularly and easily engage with customers who place \u2018risky\u2019 orders<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interested to know more about Thirdwatch and how it can aid your business? Click below and get started with a one-month trial to see for yourself!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also read: <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/provide-good-shipping-experience-during-lockdown\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to Provide a Good Shipping Experience<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><a style=\"border-radius: 3px; background: #68458A; padding: 15px; font-weight: 600; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; color: white;\" href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/thirdwatch\">Try out Thirdwatch for free<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eliminate non-deliverable and incomplete shipping addresses for your e-commerce store with the all-new Address Correction feature from Razorpay Thirdwatch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":5262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[43,76,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-5261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-online-commerce","8":"tag-online-commerce","9":"tag-return-to-origin","10":"tag-shipping-address"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}