Reduced undeliverable packages by 22% with over 420M+ accurate addresses verified in a year

Shippo, is the leading shipping platform for modern e-commerce, helping businesses of all sizes streamline shipping from pre-purchase to returns. Trusted by over 300,000 businesses—including top e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, and brands—Shippo simplifies shipping complexities and drives growth. With access to 100+ carriers and integrations, Shippo allows users to compare discounted rates, print labels, track shipments, manage returns, and more—boosting efficiency and enhancing customer satisfaction at every step of the shipping process.

Deliverability is a critical KPI for Shippo’s customers. “Deliverability is everything in shipping,” said Saurabh Sharan, Senior Product Manager at Shippo. “We have to be able to determine if an address by itself is deliverable or not.”

Businesses expect shipping efficiency from Shippo to print accurate and deliverable customer address labels so their packages reach their intended destinations. If Shippo supplies invalid, inaccurate, or bad addresses, its customers encounter shipping delays, increased labor and expenses, lost revenue, customer mistrust, and a poor brand reputation.

Shippo handles millions of domestic and international addresses annually, so attention to detail is vital for success and its customers' success. Even a tiny mistake can have costly repercussions over time, so reducing the number of undeliverable packages because of low address quality is a high priority.

While outperforming its competitors, Shippo sought an expert address tools partner to enhance its premium offerings.

In 2021, Shippo integrated Smarty's US Address Verification API into its processes to ensure accurate shipping data and minimize failed mail deliveries. With correct addresses, Shippo could reduce undeliverable packages due to address-related errors, improve deliverability logistics, and provide efficient delivery experiences for customers of all sizes and locations.

Implementing Smarty’s APIs was straightforward. According to Saurabh, “The documentation was very easy to understand. Smarty’s API also allowed [Shippo] to build in additional business logic, such as validating addresses to different levels (city, street, apartment) based on available data, so that was incredibly helpful for our use cases.”

Identifying the API responses with Smarty’s support team was incredibly useful. “Specific technical and product questions we’ve had were answered with very clear and quick solutions,” stated the Engineering Manager of Shippo’s Address Validation team. Saurabh agreed: “The support team, in combination with clear documentation, really helped.”

By implementing Smarty’s US Address Verification at multiple touchpoints, Shippo eliminated bad addresses, improved delivery efficiency and data accuracy, and did the same for its customers.

Straightforward and speedy integration Smarty’s US Address Verification API encouraged equally speedy results.

Identifying the API responses with Smarty’s support team was incredibly useful. “Specific technical and product questions we’ve had were answered with very clear and quick solutions,” stated the Engineering Manager of Shippo’s Address Validation team. Saurabh agreed: “The support team, in combination with clear documentation, really helped.”

Reduced undeliverable packages: Saurabh shared that after integrating Smarty’s Address Validation API into their web application, they saw improved address quality and reduced address-related errors reported by carriers (specifically errors caused by incorrect addresses in their customer address database). Shippo noted that the enhancement increased delivery efficiency and reduced undeliverable packages by 22% due to improved address validation early in the shipping flow.

Enhanced accuracy with metadata: Shippo relies heavily on the metadata points returned by Smarty’s validation service to provide them with address quality insights. For example, Smarty’s address verification allows Shippo to distinguish between residential and commercial addresses, which informs customers of relevant and accurate shipping services for their packages. This added layer of detail ensures that customers don’t choose inappropriate shipping options that could lead to delivery failure or increased postage costs.

Additionally, having address records with current address data is extremely important when calculating labor and shipping costs. Saurabh said, “There's definitely an improvement in our web app deliverability because of this new address enhancement that we've done with Smarty.”

Fast and reliable performance: “I think the first thing that surprised us about using Smarty is definitely uptime and response times, which have been consistently fast.” stated Saurabh. “That's crucial for us to build a stable product.” With enterprise customers concerned about SLAs and response times, Smarty’s APIs consistently perform exceptionally well, with response times around 300-400 milliseconds for high volumes of data processing, according to Shippo. This efficiency ensures Shippo provides seamless operations, especially during peak shipping times, and delivers a positive impact to customers. The uptime has also been dependable, providing Shippo with the essential reliability to keep its operations running smoothly.

Scalable address validation across multiple regions: Shippo uses Smarty’s API for address validation in the US and is exploring ways to leverage Smarty’s property data and enrichment APIs for improving deliverability, particularly in areas where secondary address data, such as apartment numbers, may be missing. Shippo complements Smarty’s data with other validation services for international shipments.

The Smarty advantage: Shippo’s team praised Smarty’s documentation clarity, responsive support team, and reliable uptime. Their Engineering Manager noted that even when technical questions arose, Smarty’s support team provided comprehensive explanations and potential solutions. Shippo is confident in continuing its partnership with Smarty for future address validation needs.

By integrating Smarty’s address validation APIs, Shippo improved address accuracy, reduced undeliverable packages, and enhanced the overall customer experience. With robust API performance and responsive support, Smarty helped Shippo improve both performance and accuracy, strengthening Shippo’s position as a leading shipping platform with reliable, accurate global address validation.

With 419 million domestic and 7 million international addresses validated in 2023, Shippo diligently pursues accuracy across all regions and address types.

Discover the benefits of accurate address data. Talk to an address expert today!