They are required to guarantee the correctness, completeness, and standardization of all the data that users provide during the registration process.
In addition to enhancing the eCommerce and shipping operations of a business, these tools also offer a big improvement in quality of life (QoL) for sales staff and call centre agents. Since businesses depend on address validation APIs every day, they should be incredibly fast, reliable at all times, and cost-effective.
Some free APIs tick all these boxes, but you may be worried there’s a catch. If you want to use free address validation APIs, here’s how to avoid the pitfalls:
Consider Where They Get Their Data
Premium paid versions of address validation APIs from leading providers like Trestle will only source their data from reputable sources. That way, you can be sure that using such tools will carry very little risk, if any. Even if the free tool you have integrated into your systems is risk-free, you still want to ensure it is as comprehensive as possible, thus you can find any address, regardless of the location.
Most free address validation APIs have limited capacities since they don’t connect to high-quality data sources. This means their data may be a little “off”, depending on your queries, thus they’ll often miss perfectly deliverable addresses and PO Boxes.
That’s quite common if you are querying the API for a local address that doesn’t show up frequently. The best way to tackle this challenge, therefore, would be to get a reliable paid API, and only use free APIs for confirmations.
Think About Rate Limits & Performance Issues
Free address validation tools typically come with strict usage limits for given periods. While this shouldn’t be a problem for small businesses or low-volume operations, any surge in address validation needs will leave you stranded. For instance, if a free API limits you to a few hundred requests in a day, you may have a lot of trouble during peak seasons like Black Friday or holiday sales.
You can avoid this by using a free API when it makes the most sense to do that and switch to a paid version as your business traffic starts to see an increase.
Determine All the Features You Need Beforehand
It’s quite easy to get excited when you find a reliable free address validation API that you forget to check whether it has all the features you need for your operations. Some APIs, for example, won’t have geocoding services, which simply means they can offer latitude and longitude data for the addresses you key in.
The lack of enriched data can hamper logistics operations that depend on precise geospatial information for deliveries. Also, supplementary features like address autocomplete and residential delivery indicator (RDI) aren’t common for free APIs, reducing the overall effectiveness of your address validation process.
The simple solution here is to first think about the features that matter the most to your business operations then you can decide whether to use a free API or switch to a premium tool.
Don’t Overlook Security Concerns
Nothing is ever completely free. In most cases, there’s always a catch. Could be you are the product. Some free address validation APIs are so unreliable and may not even use robust data protection measures like encryption or data access control. Even worse, some store your data for extended periods.
The problem with this is you are handling sensitive customer data and even if you aren’t in a region with strict data protection guidelines, you never want customers to lose their trust in you.
When choosing an API, therefore, get one that has taken the right steps to guarantee maximum customer data security. Additionally, do your due diligence to ensure you’re choosing a trustworthy provider.
Avoid These & More Problems the Easy Way
It may look like using a free address validation API is ideal for your business due to the cost-effectiveness, but such tools come with lots of limitations that can impact business operations significantly. From limited accuracy to security concerns and lots of other issues, the drawbacks often outweigh the gains.
However, by using advanced address validation APIs from a reliable provider like Trestle, you are sure you are getting the best features and services available. Head over to trestleiq.com to learn more or get started today.
