For the most part, the online shopping experience is pretty great…
Until you reach the checkout page and have to fill in all the address form fields. Sometimes twice, if your delivery address is not the same as the billing address.
(Even though you’re probably going to select the pickup point as the preferred delivery method anyway.)
Are shipping address forms really that important for e-commerce merchants and consumers?
Short answer: Yes. Here’s why.
Why is your delivery address form important?
Most missed delivery attempts and silent returns are caused by address mistakes. Let that sink in for a moment.
“When addresses are inaccurate or incomplete, 41% of deliveries are delayed, and 39% simply fail.”
Fixing Failed Deliveries study from Loqate
It doesn't seem like such a big deal at first, but... Even the smallest errors in shipping address forms can cause a failed delivery, and cost your e-commerce business money. $17 on average, to be exact.
We can’t keep blaming online shoppers for making these mistakes, though.
Poorly designed checkout processes, confusing address form fields, and lack of data validation don't make it easy for customers, and are still more common than you might think.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The solution? Fix your e-commerce form and start collecting accurate address details in a frictionless fashion.
How to fix your shipping address form
To minimize errors and speed up the checkout for your customers, you can start simple:
- Reduce address form fields
- Tailor delivery address forms to your customers
- Use data validation and auto-completion
- Add Ingrid Address Form to your checkout
Reduce address form fields
Congrats, a potential customer is about to fill in the address form and finalize the order.
If they already came this far, the best thing you can do is not to stay in the way. In other words: keep things focused on the purchase and avoid asking for any information that you don’t really need.
Instead, look for potential improvements that reduce friction and speed up the checkout process.
You can, for example, use a single field for the full name (rather than separate first and last name), and make the shipping address the same as the billing address by default— unless the customer requests otherwise.
Once you’re at it, don’t be afraid to use placeholders and tooltips to help your customers with filling in the address form fields correctly. Speaking of…
Tailor delivery address forms to your customers
E-commerce forms don’t get any more user-friendly when there’s international shipping involved. (Un)fortunately, generic “Address line 1 & 2” placeholders just don’t do the trick anymore, especially if you aim to reduce confusion and address mistakes.
Even if you don’t ship abroad just yet (or the order volumes are still pretty low), handling more non-domestic deliveries is inevitable.
Whether you like it or not, online shopping becomes increasingly more “digital” — customers can order products from anywhere to anywhere these days. Ideally, address forms and delivery options should be tailored to where they are located to reduce confusion.
Familiar e-commerce forms just don't keep your customers guessing: Can the order actually be delivered to my address? What is a ZIP code? Why is the format of my phone number not accepted?
The more tailored your address form fields are to different locations, the better for your customers — and your business.
Use data validation and auto-completion
The benefits of address form auto-completion and validation for e-commerce retailers are pretty clear. It turns out, however, that customers care about them, too.
The 2022 Holiday Report from Loqate shows that 44% of global shoppers trust the retailer more if they have the option to auto-complete address entries.
What’s more, 24% of shoppers would make more online purchases in the future, and 14% would choose that brand over one without auto-complete.
Considering that most missed delivery attempts are due to incorrect address details, enabling customers to autofill, autocomplete, and verify their input is a win-win for everyone involved in the online shopping process.
Especially for those shoppers who travel or frequently change addresses, and could use some help to get the details right.
"Deliveries are very contextual, how the consumers want their stuff varies a lot depending on what they’re buying and when. E-commerce brands should offer different alternatives at various pricing points, without putting all their customers in one box."
Anders Ekman, COO & Co-founder at Ingrid
Luckily, the current tech solutions can help you do just that (and more).
Add Ingrid Address Form to your checkout
Ingrid Address Form is a new widget that, once implemented on the checkout page, makes collecting and handling customers’ delivery addresses easier.
No unnecessary manual work, no duplicates of the same data, and no errors when entering address details — everything is verified and saved without too much trouble for the end consumer.
Here’s how it works:
- Your customers provide their address details using Ingrid Address Form fields, which can be adapted to a specific country and language to become more accessible and less error-prone.
- To make the delivery checkout process easier, relevant examples of how the address form should be completed are shown, with informative tooltips available.
- To speed things up, customers can take advantage of the address autocompletion.
- Every delivery address is validated to reduce data entry mistakes. Whenever there’s an error, the consumer will be informed and asked to correct it.
- The customers’ input is used to generate delivery options, and to collect the necessary address details for the order delivery.
- When needed, it can also be shared with the Payment Service Provider and used as the billing address.
- The customer can provide multiple addresses and have them saved by Ingrid for future use. Instead of filling in the forms every time, they can just choose their delivery details and proceed with the checkout.
Ingrid Address Form is the first step toward remembering and reusing consumers’ delivery details in a smart way — with one-click checkout being the ultimate goal for every order.
Book a demo to see it in action.
Address forms for the win?
When done right, something as simple as shipping address form has multiple benefits:
- Reducing the number of failed deliveries and silent returns (saving you some money and trouble along the way) by collecting verified, correct address details
- Speeding up the checkout process with the ability to autocomplete or autofill address details
- Improving the checkout & delivery experience for consumers thanks to a short address form with country-specific fields
Is your current shipping address form allowing you to see those benefits yourself?
When in doubt, reducing and tailoring the address form fields to your customers, as well as ensuring data validation and autocompletion, are just a few ways to make it better.
If you're looking for a tech solution to help you optimize the whole delivery checkout for higher conversion and repeat purchases, make sure to give Ingrid a try.
