Hi cjs, Forcing validation of addresses introduces friction for your users. Unnecessary friction will result in lost sales.
It's certainly a waste of your resources to develop this before the problem of fake/phantom addresses even exists for you. If it's an assumption, you should have a really high cost-risk of fake addresses to justify it. There may simpler alternatives to mitigate that risk. The best databases don't always work too. My business pays for an MBE post box (Suite 294, 4 Young Street...) which is a valid mail & courier address but not AFAIK not accepted by AMAS. Similar problems occur with virtual offices/suites addresses. Likewise I used to work on a defence site that had it's own postcode which was often (stupidly) rejected. You're likely better off developing a helpful address validator. Perhaps it could flag "risky" addresses for you. You should argue with your PM about the risk/cost analysis and other strategies to mitigate that risk (credit card number, send an SMS validation code etc). Hard to say without knowing more about the business. Finally, Niki's pointer to the Google Maps goecoding API is excellent. It does such a good job parsing addresses. regards, Jeromy Evans On Jul 29, 11:06 am, cij <cjf...@gmail.com> wrote: > hi folks, > > ok, so my downgraded requirements of using street names only didn't > sit well with my product manager : ).. had a debate with her last > night. her and the developers insist on a highly detailed database of > street addresses. i'm concerned about cost to business and whether we > need it ; ) > > the goal is to validate delivery addresses that customers enter into > website.. to avoid phantom addresses and prank orders. we are planning > on offering a COD service for customised low cost products. > > i'm looking now at AMAS address matching providers linked to the > national Postal Address File. not sure if they can interact with a > website in real time to check addresses > > @Yoo-Jin, thanks for the NSW address validation link! > > back to my debate with the product manager. My take is that address > validation of that sophistication may be an overkill/overengineering? > and what if we reject customers that made minor typos in their address > that a human postie can figure out, but machine logic rejects ; ) (i > will check field structure and tolerances in AMAS)? > > interested to hear your takes on this debate? : ) what's the > experience in oz regarding how common prank orders are for website > businesses? or is this problem normally addressed through deposit or > prepayment i.e. don't trust the customer ; ) > > On Jul 27, 12:06 pm, cij <cjf...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > > hi, just reaching out to the community for tips on how to quickly > > source an australian national street address/suburb database for use > > in a website startup. No luck yet going through aussie post and > > sensis. Other suggestions welcome. Thanks! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Visting http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
