Before Eircode was launched in 2015, Ireland was one of the few developed countries without a national postcode system. With over 35% of addresses in Ireland sharing their address with at least one other property, accurately finding, and locating addresses online and offline was challenging.
Postal workers had to manually keep track of family names and houses in small towns and townlands to successfully make deliveries. This local knowledge is unachievable for larger courier services, such as DHL Express, to replicate.
According to the Central Statistics Office over 80% of Irish residents purchase goods online. With this influx of online purchases comes an increase in deliveries. Without Eircode providing the exact location, it makes sending and receiving orders extremely difficult and both businesses and consumers are constantly encountering complications.
DHL Express have made Eircode a mandatory requirement for shipments entering the Republic of Ireland from 2 July 2023. Its likely more courier services will move in the same direction with the aim to improve first time deliveries.
How does Eircode work?
Eircode is made up of two parts: a routing key and a unique identifier.
The routing key is made up of three characters and defines the post town area in which to deliver. While the unique identifier is made up of four characters and exclusive to one address, distinguishing it from another.
Although Eircode looks like the Royal Mail postcode system in the UK, it isn’t formatted in the same way. Unlike other countries, where a postcode defines a cluster of addresses in one specific area, an Eircode identifies one single address. Every residential and business address in Ireland has its own unique Eircode to identify their location, over 2.2million unique Eircode identifiers.
Eircode for eCommerce
Eircode has multiple benefits for the public, businesses, and public services. With the move to mandatory Eircode information from DHL Express, its crucial for ecommerce sites to collect and validate Eircode data to ensure their selected courier services will accept the deliveries without incurring additional address correction surcharges.
Key benefits include:
- Reduce cart abandonment with address autocomplete.
- Faster, accurate and consistent address capture and validation.
- Improves first time delivery rates.
Selecting the right Eircode product for your business
Eircode for businesses is available in two data product options. In the first option, the Eircode Address File (ECAF) provides 2.2 million address points with their Eircode and USP Postal Address.
The Eircode Address Database (ECAD) goes a step further. Incorporating the basic ECAF data and enhancing it with alias address information, geo-coordinates, boundary data and building information. This option provides businesses with a more extensive view of Irish addressing to reduce complexity.
Why Choose Eircode Address Database (ECAD)?
As mentioned previously, ECAD offers a more encompassing view of addresses to support your activities within Ireland.
Take alias address information for instance; not only are addresses shared with multiple households which can make it difficult to navigate, some may write the same street, townland, or apartment building in different forms as well. This can be due to local common naming conventions, historical reasons, and variations in spelling (anglicised versions of Gaelic names). An example of this can be seen below:
As well as this, ECAD offers users geospatial information such as longitude and latitude coordinates, and building information, like single occupancy or non-residential buildings. Providing a more accurate depiction of location for addresses allowing continued success in the Republic of Ireland.
Data8 Eircode Provider
Data8 have removed all the intricacies of accessing and integrating Eircode into your existing software and systems with our plugins and APIs.
Data8’s service is powered by ECAD, giving you confidence that you have access to the most reliable and comprehensive address information for the Republic of Ireland.
For real-time address verification, our PredictiveAddress technology intelligently predicts, autocompletes, and standardises all fields with minimal keystrokes. Not only does this help the user quickly find their address online, but also speeds up the checkout process by up to 80% resulting in fewer abandonments and higher conversions.
You can accurately and efficiently pinpoint the address’ exact location, physically and digitally. This will enable better logistics planning, increase first time deliverability, and provide a more seamless service.
If you are an existing Data8 PredictiveAddress client, it’s a simple as contacting your Client Success Manager adding an additional service to your account.
New to Data8 Predictive Address? We offer a free 14-day trial, no credit card needed to get you up and running as quickly as possible. Either create an online account or speak to our Client Success Team.
Getting Started
Existing client? Speak to your Client Success Manager
Sign up for a free 14-day trial and get started immediately.
If you have further questions about our Eircode services, please get in touch here!
Sources
