A missing house number is one of the most common address errors in a Shopify checkout. The carrier cannot deliver, the parcel comes back, and you pay a fee. Pakkeshopper stops the error before the order is placed.
The problem: Shopify accepts a street without a number
The Shopify checkout accepts 'Nørregade' as a full address. The customer pays, you print the label, and the carrier discovers too late that the parcel cannot be delivered. The result is a delay, a return or a manual correction, and the customer blames your store. Many merchants only notice the problem when the carrier's invoice arrives.
Why carriers charge penalty fees
An incomplete address means extra work for the carrier: a manual correction, a failed delivery attempt or a return to sender. Carriers pass that cost on to you as a penalty fee per parcel, on top of the normal shipping price. The size of the fee depends on your carrier and your agreement, but it is always a cost you cannot bill to the customer afterwards.
How the house number check works
When the customer enters a shipping address, Pakkeshopper checks whether the street line contains a house number. If it does not, the checkout shows a message and blocks the order until the address is corrected. The customer cannot pay with an incomplete address.
What the customer sees
- 'Nørregade' gives the hint 'Add a house number'.
- 'Nørregade 12, 2nd floor' passes as a valid address.
The hint appears in the checkout, so most customers correct the address in a few seconds and continue to payment.
Apple Pay, Google Pay and partial addresses
Apple Pay and Google Pay only share a partial delivery address before payment. Pakkeshopper quotes shipping rates from the country and the zip code alone, so customers who pay with a wallet still see the right shipping methods. Address validation works alongside your shipping rules and pickup points in the same checkout.
If a parcel still comes back
Address validation removes the most common cause of returns, but a parcel can still be refused or go uncollected. The tracking dashboard lists shipments that are on the way back, and the Shopify Flow trigger 'Parcel returned' lets you act on them automatically.
How to turn it on
- Install Pakkeshopper from the Shopify App Store and make sure Carrier Calculated Rates is active on your store. The Carrier Calculated Rates guide explains how.
- Open Settings in the Pakkeshopper dashboard and turn on address validation.
- Test the checkout with a street name without a house number. Shopify caches shipping rates for up to 24 hours, so change the house number or the cart contents to get fresh results.
Included in every plan
Address validation is part of Starter, which is free for the first 100 orders per month, and of Pro, Max and Enterprise. You do not need a paid plan to stop bad addresses. Pakkeshopper handles more than 3 million shipments a year. See the pricing section for what else each plan includes. Questions? Write to [email protected], support is in Danish and English.