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What Is Address Standardization?

Address standardization is the process of recording addresses correctly and converting information into a country’s official requirements. This capability improves shipping and delivery processes. Companies can standardize addresses using software, which parses through text to extract and assemble relevant information for billing and shipping.

To provide full global coverage, a high-quality address standardization solution will maintain a consistent and reliable single-best record, which comes from aggregating reference data from hundreds of data sources from all over the world. This behind-the-scenes technology takes the legwork and guesswork out of converting addresses into their needed formats, which reduces customer service complexity.

When an “address is standardized,” it means that the relevant details (i.e. street number, apartment number, street name, city, state, and postal code) are in the correct formats.

What a standardized address looks like

A standardized address typically includes several key elements:

1.Street Number -the numerical identifier assigned to a specific building or location on a street will usually appear at the beginning of the address. For example, in the address "123 Main St," the number "123" is the street number.

2. Apartment Number: If the address needs to refer to a specific flat or room (subpremise) in a larger building such as an apartment complex, student residence or office building, the apartment number is included to specify the exact location. This is often denoted by the abbreviation "Apt" or the "#" symbol. For instance, "123 Main St Apt 4B" indicates that the address is for apartment 4B in the building located at 123 Main Street.

3. Street Name: the name of the road or thoroughfare where the building is located. It can include various types of street designations which are often abbreviated, such as Street (St), Avenue (Ave), Boulevard (Blvd), Lane (Ln), and so on. In our example, "Main" is the street name.

4. City: Including the municipality in which the address is situated essential for routing mail and packages. Returning to our example, address "123 Main St, Springfield," "Springfield" is the city.

5. State: The state is a larger administrative region that encompasses the city. It is typically abbreviated to two letters in the United States, such as "CA" for California or "NY" for New York. In our example, if the address were "123 Main St, Springfield, IL," "IL" represents the state of Illinois. In the UK, this line is instead used for the county, for example, West Yorkshire or Greater London.

6. Postal Code: Also known as a ZIP code in the United States, this is a series of numbers (and sometimes letters, in other countries) that narrows down the location for mail delivery still further. For instance, in the address "123 Main St, Springfield, IL 62701," "62701" is the postal code. Learn more: What is a postal code?

Standardizing an address involves ensuring that each of these components is present and correctly ordered so that mail and deliveries reach their intended target.

Casing and Capitalization for Standardized Addresses

When it comes to properly formatting addresses, correct casing and capitalization are key to ensuring mail reaches its intended destination without any delays or errors. If you're familiar with USPS addresses, you may be used to seeing the below formatting style in all capitals: 

123 APPLE STREET,

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO

But it's actually not the best way to format a standardized USPS address, which favours regular capitalization, and writing state names in full, as follows: 

Example of a Standardized address: 

123 Apple Street,

Colorado Springs, Colorado

When writing out a street address, it's important to capitalize the first letter of each word (e.g., 123 Apple Street) to maintain readability and professionalism. Additionally, when including city and state names, capitalize the first letter of each word as well (e.g., New York, Los Angeles). By following these standardized address formatting guidelines, you can help to ensure that your mailings are processed efficiently and accurately.

How do I know what abbreviations to use for standardized addresses? 

The easiest way to standardize addresses (and yes, I know, we're biased...) is to use address standardization software like Loqate, which will instantly capture, standardize and validate addresses, either from your database or at point of entry (for example, in real time as users fill in a form).

However, if you want to do it yourself, the USPS do offer a handy library from which you can find all the abbreviations you'll need to construct a perfectly standardized address. The trouble is, there are a LOT of abbreviations to memorise, which is why address standardization services are so popular. There is only one accepted abbreviation for any given aspect of an address too - for example 'St' is the only abbreviated way to say 'Street' ('Strt' would not parse correctly). So, it can be done, but it does take time and practice to get the correct formatting down by heart. 

Why does Address Standardization matter?

Poor address data quality is a multi-billion dollar challenge for businesses and postal carriers around the world. The goal of address standardization is to prevent these problems while also improving the speed and delivery of service for end users.

It’s common for the following issues to arise when customers share their billing and delivery information:

  • Incomplete information - Missing street names, block numbers, or zip codes
  • Invalid information - Fake addresses and zip codes
  • Incorrect information - Typos, misspellings, formatting of abbreviations (i.e. CAL instead of CA for California)
  • Inaccurate information - Wrong addresses or house numbers

These errors are all a real problem as they create difficulties for delivering parcels and, if postal carriers can't find a destination, packages may end up being returned. That in turn causes shipping delays for customers - and it's businesses who must absorb the costs of these errors, as a result.

Address standardization also helps businesses keep up with population growth, urbanization, and new construction taking place, as a result. In the United States, as an example, the Postal Service (USPS) adds 4,221 addresses to its delivery network every day. By standardizing addresses, businesses can ensure that information — regarding site to store pickup instructions, for instance — remain accurate.

International Address Standardization

Beyond ensuring data quality, address standardization is necessary for businesses that are expanding their customer bases into new countries and territories.

Address standardization technology formats international addresses to meet local rules. In Japan, people start their address by entering their postal code. If the company is in France, they will ask for the building number before the street name, while German forms will ask for the street name first, along with the recipient’s academic title, as it is an essential part of the address there.

Keeping this context in mind, address standardization can help maintain an optimal buyer experience. End users need to see form fields presented in the order that is most familiar to them. To create a geographically relevant end-user experience, address standardization software will help automate the following steps:

  • Identifying the website visitor — by connecting established customers to their user accounts and pinpointing the locations of new website visitors
  • Showing that person a customized browsing and checkout experience, based on his or her location
  • Ensuring that the billing and delivery address fields are correct for that individual’s region
  • Validating the address that the customer shares, to ensure that the information is accurate and matches official postal records

With these protocols in place, a retailer in the United Kingdom can seamlessly deliver products to customers in the United States — or anywhere else — without the risk of error.

Is there a difference between address standardization and normalization? 

Yes... and no. In real terms, people tend to use the terms interchangeably. Technically though, normalization of addresses is the more complete term for fixing errors in address formatting, such as typos and spelling errors, whereas to 'standardize' an address only denotes the process of having it in a readable, standardized format for mail delivery. In essence, while standardization focuses on formatting, normalization delves deeper into error detection and correction. Both processes are important for businesses to improve mail deliverability, customer communication, and overall data quality. And the good news is, Loqate does both, in one all-in-one solution, that is nonetheless quick and easy to install.

Address Standardization In Practice

USPS Requirements

In the United States, where the mail service relies on automation, address standardization creates a systematic and consistent basis for record-keeping across the country.

While the USPS maintains rules for standardization, it will still accept some address formats that are not in the preferred format. For instance, the USPS recommends that punctuation be omitted but will accept an address with punctuation.

Similarly, uppercase letters are not a USPS requirement even though they are acceptable. There are also multiple abbreviations for street suffixes that the USPS will recognize, even though the official standard is best for ensuring deliverability — there’s a risk of mail with an incorrect suffix failing to reach its recipient.

Further details regarding address standardization in the United States are available on the USPS Postal Explorer website. Address standardization software will have these rules and considerations built into their technology.

Data Cleanliness

Address standardization is necessary to help companies maintain good data hygiene, both in real-time and over the long-term. It can help companies:

  • Ensure parcel delivery. Once an address is in its correct format, you can use software to validate the information. Address validation, also known as address verification is a separate process from address standardization; however, both are necessary for confirming the accuracy of postal information.Address verification is a process for checking the accuracy of location data. Its use cases are applicable to organizations across industries ranging from eCommerce to gaming, financial services, healthcare, education, insurance, banking, and logistics. Learn more about address verification.
  • Updating company records. Over time, databases tend to deteriorate in quality. Businesses need to actively maintain the health of their systems of record — especially since addresses are always changing.Both address verification and standardization can help ensure that your databases are in optimal condition, which will be helpful for personalizing marketing campaigns, creating loyalty programs, and identifying locations for future stores.

Address standardization and verification are important components to any businesses serving an international audience.

Loqate helps businesses around the world verify customer addresses by combining our global datasets with best in class technology. Our easy to integrate API helps our customers verify customer data at the point of capture. Find out more about how Loqate address verification solutions can help your business.