Using Lead Commerce, we strive to make sure your data is accurate and intact. One way we do that with shipping is verifying your addresses. Lead Commerce has 3 different ways of correcting/validating an address: AutoCorrection, Missing Secondary Data, and Invalid Address.

AutoCorrection

For example, let's say you are entering in the address:

3771 South Las Vegas Boulevard Ste 120, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109

For the most part, this address might look accurate. However, to the US Post office and many shipping providers, this is incorrect. If Lead Commerce can identify the address you are trying to ship it to, it will try to correct the address to:

3771 Las Vegas S Blvd Ste 120, Las Vegas, NV 89109

Now Lead Commerce requests a user to put additional data in Address 2 fields. However, this is not required. If secondary data is entered into the Address 1 field, this will be placed into Address 2 automatically.

Missing Secondary Data

For example, lets say you enter in the following address:

3771 Las Vegas S Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109

This address above is valid, however, it is missing the Ste Number. This will cause an issue for any shipping provider because they do not know where to deliver it once it arrives at this address. Most providers will either charge the merchant for correcting this address or the Post Office will just reject it and send it back. The way Lead Commerce saves you money is throwing an error saying this address is missing secondary data. This allows you to catch the error before shipping. A useful trick is to look at a street view using a mapping service such as Google or Bing to see if it is a building that might require a Suite, Unit or Floor number.

Invalid Address

For example, let's say you enter in the following address:

11745 West I-10 Suite 755, San Antonio, TX 78230

Once again, this address looks correct. However, to the US Post office and many shipping providers, this is incorrect. Lead Commerce might not always be able to correct the problem but will throw an error saying this address is incorrect. You might then proceed to go to google or mapquest and check if the address exists. DO NOT USE GOOGLE OR OTHER MAPPING SERVICES AS ADDRESS VALIDATION. These services are not validated with the US Post Office. To correct this address, we recommend to use Melissa Data.

http://www.melissadata.com/lookups/zipnumber.asp

This is a free service. To use it, simply enter in the number and the zip code. For example, 11745 and 78230. You will see with this example that 2 addresses return. By using this service you can see that the address is actually:

11745 W Interstate 10 Suite 755, San Antonio, TX 78230

You can also use Smarty Streets Address Validation: https://smartystreets.com/products/single-address

There is also the USPS Address Checker: https://tools.usps.com/zip-code-lookup.htm?byaddress (does not provide very much guidance on correcting the issue though).

Still Have An Invalid Address??

For example, let's say you enter in the following address:

You can check the address here: http://www.melissadata.com/lookups/zipnumber.asp and mouse over the result code to see the details. You may see that it says "Non USPS Address Match (AS03)".

You can also use the address validation tool on the USPS website (https://tools.usps.com/zip-code-lookup.htm?byaddress); however is not very intuitive, unfortunately. Once you enter an address and click on the Find button, you will need to check if the USPS version of the address has a 9-digit ZIP Code. If it only shows a 5-digit ZIP Code, the address is not a deliverable USPS address. To further confirm this, click on the address to see more details and you will see that "DPV CONFIRMATION INDICATOR" = N (not valid). The DPV confirmation indicator could also say Y (yes, valid), D (missing apartment number), or S (unrecognized apartment number).

If you are still unable to correct the address up to USPS Standards, you can ignore the validation and still ship the order out with another shipping provider. For this, please read How to Bypass Address Validation.