Address Verification – the Remedy for Shortfalls in Grocery Deliveries

With the digital transformation accelerating the shift to e-commerce, grocery retailers are also optimising their customer journey. However, online stores require more attention towards failed deliveries, chargebacks, and other such fraud attempts. While grocery retailers are trying to integrate online shopping and digital payment functionalities, criminals take such transformations as their free pass to make illicit purchases. 

Failed deliveries contain a variety of subsets including chargeback claims, information correction charges, and re-shipping costs. In order to mitigate the chances of these happenings, grocery e-stores require efficient address verification systems. While they automate data collection and analysis, retailers can ensure accurate shipments. 

This blog covers the consequences of failed deliveries for grocery merchants and how online address verification overcomes them. 

Inaccurate Delivery Consequences for Grocery Retailers

The adoption of online grocery shopping has spiked since the COVID-19 pandemic. Ever since, ordering food, drinks, and other products through e-stores has been the new normal among buyers. With 12.6% of grocery sales taking place online, retailers need to upgrade their financial and delivery services. As inaccurate entries can lead to data discrepancies and failed shipments, e-stores require efficient address verification solutions. 

The detrimental effects of failed deliveries are taking over the grocery sector, negatively influencing customer experience. Typological errors, inaccurate information, and fraudulent attempts are the catalysts behind the inaccurate dispatching of orders. Moving further, grocery retailers pay additional correction charges to re-route the order when shippers fail to find a particular location. 

Inefficient Address Verification Controls leaves Room for Fraudsters 

Inaccurate address verification paves the way for fraudsters as it eases filing for false chargeback claims. Moreover, they willingly input wrong information to de-track shipments and flee with illicit financial benefits. Failed deliveries increase reputational damage, customer drop-off, and the use of additional resources. In order to revert the diverse effects of inaccurate shipments, grocery retailers need to make online address verification a part of their customer onboarding process. 

Buyers are likely to prefer grocery e-stores that provide a user-friendly experience, ensure accurate deliveries, and cut down waiting time. However, inadequate IDV measures to verify address can bring consequences otherwise. Lengthy and complex onboarding steps are another factor adding to this cause. Hence, to elevate customers’ online grocery shopping experience and attain a competitive edge in marketplaces, retailers should integrate AI-powered address verification systems. 

Verification of Address – Countering Grocery Retailers’ Challenges

Grocery retailers experience various challenges when they validate address and route orders. The foremost is inaccurate data entry which can either be intentional for fraudulent chargeback claims or typological errors from the customers’ side. Online shopping can be time taking and to save time, buyers often input wrong details. While this results in failed deliveries, it also increases additional correction charges for retailers. 

The next section outlines challenges that online grocery stores face during address verification and accurate deliveries.  

Discrepancies in Data Entry 

To quickly sweep through the online shopping process, customers often omit information, mistype street details, and provide inaccurate postcodes. During routing the orders, shippers find it challenging to locate actual buyers and deliver orders to the wrong places. Furthermore, while manually verifying address, retailers are unable to authenticate the legitimacy of the information. 

Considering the increase in failed deliveries and customer drop-offs, grocery retailers are integrating online address verification solutions. While buyers are more likely to drive away from complex onboarding processes, AI-powered IDV services automate online shopping. Customers can simply provide their identity documents that the ML algorithms analyse to validate address.  

False Chargebacks

Fraudsters use inaccurate delivery details to dodge retailers and claim false chargebacks. Online stores use manual methods for address verify that are unable to deal with forgeries or data discrepancies. Therefore, integrating AI-powered IDV solutions streamlines online grocery shopping by automating customer onboarding. Moreover, with geolocation tagging, retailers can cross-verify address and locations of buyers. Similarly, document authentication can eliminate data discrepancies. 

Inaccurate Deliveries

One of the significant challenges grocery retailers face is failed deliveries which aid in increasing additional charges. They also drive reputational damage for online stores, which causes a severe financial downfall in the competitive market. In order to reduce negative consequences, grocery retailers should invest more in integrating robust IDV solutions to validate address. Online stores can eliminate failed deliveries with automated data extraction and analysis tools. 

Final Verdict 

Online grocery retailers strive to enhance customers’ experience without creating friction or inconvenience for them. By upgrading their operations, store owners are making digital payment, seamless order delivery, and hassle-free purchase a reality. Therefore, grocery retailers should make address verification a part of their online services to eliminate failed deliveries. Furthermore, AI-powered real-time geotagging limits fraud risks, elevates status in the competitive market and drives exponential growth for grocery merchants.