Web services expert, Emma Gooderham explains how retailers need to ensure consistent, timely and accurate address look-up services to successfully expand a domestic retail business internationally and meet the needs of an international customer base

Web services expert, Emma Gooderham explains how retailers need to ensure consistent, timely and accurate address look-up services to successfully expand a domestic retail business internationally and meet the needs of an international customer base

The trend towards global trade combined with growing government encouragement for export activity is encouraging retailers to consider international expansion. Achieving timely and accurate international delivery of goods however, is far more complex than simply supporting multiple languages on multiple e-commerce sites.

So just how can retailers embrace international business and achieve effective delivery without incurring substantial overheads in managing a standardised customer database? Emma Gooderham, managing director of WorldAddresses.com, offers RetailTechnology.co.uk readers tips on how best to take a domestic retail business into international markets.

Adopt standard, reputable formats

“Addresses are not always formatted in a uniform manner in one country, let alone across the globe,” Gooderham pointed out. “The US, for instance, has more than one type of address: ‘rural routes’ and ‘highway routes’ are different types of fields used in US addresses, which can alter the format and length of the address considerably.

“One option available to retailers is to exploit the international standard for postal addresses from the United Nation’s addressing department, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) standard S42 format. Retailers looking deliver goods to countries that have approved address templates can be confident that goods will be received by customers first time.”

Gooderham said retailers should ensure the appropriate provisions are in place to manage multiple languages and character sets. She continued: “It is crucial that any retailer looking to go global has taken cultural and lingual idiosyncrasies into consideration. For example, if a retailer is looking to expand into the Swiss market, then French, Italian and German languages and conventions need to be accommodated into the customer delivery address database.

“Technology is now available which allows diacritical marks, such as umlauts, to be referenced within address lookup software. This means the user can enter, manage, sort and process abbreviations (such as ‘St.’ for street) and place names that differ from those used in an official capacity, known as exonyms.”

Allow for address database flexibility

Gooderham went on to say that retailers must recognise that few countries take the same approach to delivering mail as the Royal Mail. In rural Sweden for example, numbers that could be mistaken for zip codes, actually equate to physical directions to the desired delivery address.

“Technology exists that allows the retailer to choose each field specifically for their customer delivery address database, meaning that only the most pertinent of address lines are used,” she explained. “If therefore, many of the addresses require a house number, road name, town and postcode, these fields can be included. Similarly, if there are addresses, which instead require a series of directions, a field specifically dedicated to a description of the directions can be included within the database.”

Outsource international address lookup

“While the language, format and mail delivery model considerations are not absolute barriers to international trade, they are expensive to remedy internally,” she added. Add to this, the internal development required to input raw data sets into a system, and suddenly budgets for international expansion are swallowed.

“Rather than having to source the necessary capital expenditure upfront, and deal with a potential spike in annual fees, many software providers charge per successful address lookup completed. In these times of austerity, when retailers are constantly trying to minimise their outgoings, engaging with a software provider provides great value for money, where there is no danger of hidden fees.”

Gooderham concluded: “If retailers are to confidently embark upon global expansion, they must seek expertise into the vagaries of international postal systems. It is then and only then that, once the necessary tools are exploited and the relevant expertise and postal standards become available, that rapid global success can be achieved.”