How Does Poste Italiane Address Validation Work

What is Poste Italiane Address Validation and How to Use It?

The 163-year-old postal organization Poste Italiane helps individuals and businesses send mail across Italy and internationally. Postal services allow you to ship low and high-priority letters, postcards, and parcels. However, there is a catch: you must write the correct mailing addresses to ensure timely and hassle-free deliveries.

Luckily, Poste Italiane address validation allows you to check whether your mailing addresses are accurate and deliverable. If the tool marks them invalid, businesses can modify their recipient addresses. Thus, they can avoid receiving mail returns and reshipping items, which costs extra time and money.

This blog discusses Poste Italiane address validation in detail, allowing you to determine whether you can rely on it to update and cleanse your records. It also suggests an alternative if you want to cater to your unique business requirements. Let’s get started!

Key Takeaways

You can use Poste Italiane address validation to verify your Italian mailing addresses are correct. If not, you can make the necessary changes for precise and timely mailings.
Poste Italiane offers a CAP searching tool to validate postal code information, ensuring your shipments are headed to the correct locations.
You can not check addresses in bulk using the postal address verification service. Also, you don’t get geocodes, autocomplete, standardization, and other features.
It is best to pair this tool with a reliable address verification API, like PostGrid, to get advanced features and real-time results.
PostGrid’s affordable solution lets businesses verify their mailing lists on demand and in bulk whenever needed. They can choose a plan that fits their objectives and needs.

What is Poste Italiane Address Validation?

This tool allows businesses to cross-verify their address validity and deliverability to ship items via the post office. They can avoid the risk of sending shipments to incorrect destinations that could cause a data breach, misplacements, delivery delays, etc. Poste Italiane address validation helps you be confident that the mailing addresses in your database can receive mail.

Address checking involves many steps you can fulfill using Poste Italiane address validation. They are:

Address Autocomplete

It is the process of suggesting complete and valid delivery addresses to users when they start typing an address. You can incorporate this feature into your brand or shopping websites to let buyers quickly and easily enter their mailing locations into your system. It avoids manual mistakes and lengthy processes that cause people to abandon their shopping carts and move on to other websites.

According to research by the Baymard Institute, 70.19% of shoppers abandon their online shopping carts! Address autocomplete is essential to keeping customers on your websites longer and helping them accurately enter their mailing details. It also benefits you by allowing you to capture customers’ precise and valid data without manual cross-confirmation.

Address Standardization

A solution like Poste Italiane address validation lets you reformat addresses according to the post office’s guidelines. You can ensure your address structure is accurate enough for the postal automated sorting system to read your mailing addresses. Otherwise, deliveries can take more time as Poste Italiane’s staff might need to cross-check the details manually.

Address Verification

After address autocomplete and reformatting, the final step is verification, which determines whether the address exists in the official postal database. If so, you can send mail to the location hassle-free. The initial steps are necessary to find a close match to your record. Otherwise, the address is marked invalid or undeliverable.

How Does Poste Italiane Address Validation Work?

Though address validation works step by step, Poste Italiane does not follow them. Unlike USPS, it has no online solution to cross-verify your mailing addresses. Hence, you must take another route, which is using Codice Di Avviamento Postale (CAP). It is Italian for Postal Routing Code, Italy’s postal code numeric system.

Businesses can rely on CAP to check whether the postal codes in their customers’ delivery addresses are correct. Unfortunately, CAP cannot validate addresses at the street or premise level beyond validating postal codes.

However, you can use Poste Italiane’s CAP and another third-party tool to verify your mailing lists and avoid sending mail to undeliverable locations. Here’s how CAP works:

Meaning and Uses of Codice Di Avviamento Postale (CAP)

Poste Italiane’s authoritative postal code database consists of data on all the postal codes in the country, like their locations and provinces. You can visit the organization’s official website and head to the CAP searching tool to enter any code you want to verify. For example, you get these results when you enter “00042.”

RM stands for Rome, and Anzio is a town name. You can get all the location details under an Italian postal code. However, some postal codes cover a broader area, like 30124:

You can also enter the location’s name instead of the postal code to get the necessary details. Please note that using the CAP searching tool, you can only search for a single postal code at a time.

Furthermore, Poste Italiane address validation does not let you download the entire postal code data into your system. You can also visit a nearby post office or contact the help center for free by dialing 803.160 to validate your postal codes. Since the organization has stated that the entire database is its property, you cannot integrate it into your system for daily operations.

Yet, you can contact the post office to obtain the CAP Professional territorial database. This paid data file, available to users in MS Access format, contains all Italian locations and place-name details for nearly 41 cities with their associated postal codes. CAP Professional does not include a software application for address verification and consulting. Based on the data in this file, you are charged with address normalizations and updates.

Similarly, the post office offers the:

CAP Street File database service: A street directory of up to 1,000 Italian cities (population of over 10,000 residents).
CAP Zone database service: A geographical directory in the “shapefile” format of territorial polygons of the corresponding postal code areas. The territorial polygon is helpful for businesses using geographic information systems (GIS).
CAP Delivery Points database service: It consists of all the delivery points across Italy, residential and commercial.
Points of Interest database service: It has 60,000 points of interest or postal facilities, with in-depth information on the number of branches, postbox location, opening and closing times, etc.

Poste Italiane updates the postal code list thrice a year: June, September, and December. Hence, obtaining CAP databases three times a year might be a good idea to receive the latest records.

How to Write Addresses Correctly in Italy?

If you want to send mail to Italy, you must write the address correctly. It helps ensure your letter or package arrives at the right place. Italian addresses follow a specific order, different from other countries. Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing an Italian address properly.

1. Start With the Recipient’s Name

Always begin with the full name of the person or the company receiving the mail. If it is a business, write the company’s name first.

Example:

Mario Rossi (for a person)
ABC Srl (for a company)

2. Write the Street Address

Italian addresses usually include a street name followed by the building number.

Common words used before street names:

Via means “Street”
Viale means “Avenue”
Piazza means “Square”

Example:

Via Garibaldi, 12 (12 Garibaldi Street)
Piazza Dante, 5 (5 Dante Square)

3. Add Extra Details (if needed)

If the recipient lives in an apartment, you can add details like:

Interno (apartment number)
Scala (staircase)
Piano (floor)

Example: Scala B, Interno 3, Piano 2 (Staircase B, Apartment 3, 2nd Floor)

4. Write the Postal Code and City

The postal code is always five digits (numbers). Then, you can mention the city name.

Example: 20121 Milano (Milan with postal code 20121)

5. Include the Province Code

After the city name, write the province code in parentheses. It is a two-letter abbreviation of the province.

Example: 20121 Milano (MI)

Some standard province codes:

Rome: (RM)
Milan: (MI)
Naples: (NA)

6. Write the Country Name (for international mail)

If you are sending from the US or another country, write Italy at the end.

Example:
Mario Rossi
Via Garibaldi, 12
20121 Milano (MI)
Italy

After writing the recipient’s delivery address, you can also mention the US return address. It allows you to get your mailpieces back if delivery fails. Otherwise, the Post Office can discard your items after a fixed duration from when Poste Italiane sends back the shipments.

Here is the format you can use:

Recipient Name
Company Name
House/ Apartment Number, Street Address
City, State Abbreviation, ZIP Code
USA

Here’s an example of a US address:

Sheldon Jones
ABC Inc
45 Main RD
Las Vegas, NV 88905

Other Instructions When Writing Italian Addresses

It is a standard rule to mention the return address on the top-left corner of the envelope or package label. The recipient or mailing address should appear in the center or the bottom-right corner. Always affix your postage stamps on the top-right corner to ensure the post office accepts and ships your shipments.

Who Uses Poste Italiane Address Validation?

Many businesses use Poste Italiane address validation to validate and standardize their mailing lists to ensure accurate and timely deliveries. However, the use cases differ for all sectors.

Healthcare

These companies, including tech providers and insurance firms, can benefit significantly from Poste Italiane address validation because they handle hundreds and thousands of clients daily. Accurate addresses ensure essential documents, insurance policies, and medical supplies reach the right people on time. It reduces errors, lost mail, and delays, improving customer satisfaction.

Providers can verify patient addresses to prevent fraud and billing issues. With clean and correct data, companies save money and avoid wasted resources. Poste Italiane’s system helps businesses comply with regulations and ensures they don’t need to reship items repeatedly.

Real Estate

Businesses in this sector can use Poste Italiane address validation to ensure they don’t exceed their marketing, shipping, or operational budgets. Correct addresses mean more potential buyers and renters see marketing materials, property listings, and offers.

It also helps when mailing contracts, rent notices, or legal documents, avoiding mistakes and delays. Furthermore, real estate companies can send marketing direct mail to promote their services in many ways, like offering free consultations, inviting people to open houses, etc.

Financial Services

Banks can personalize marketing campaigns by targeting customers with offers for loans, credit cards, or investment plans. Wealth management firms can use precise client delivery addresses to invite high-value clients to exclusive events. Fintech companies can improve onboarding by ensuring correct user addresses and reducing failed identity verification.

Accurate location data can help microfinance and rural banking services better reach underserved communities. Financial companies can also benefit from Poste Italiane address verification in many ways, such as reducing fraud, improving customer engagement, and ensuring critical information reaches people without mail returns and delays.

Government Agencies

Poste Italiane address validation lets them send official letters, tax notices, and voting information to the right homes, avoiding mistakes. Social service programs can ensure aid, benefits, and healthcare cards reach those who need them. Emergency services can update address records for faster response times. Also, census and survey teams can collect accurate data for better planning. Government offices can save money, reduce waste, and improve public trust by ensuring access to updated delivery addresses.

Nonprofit Organizations

They can ship donation requests, event invitations, and thank-you letters to supporters without risking mail returns, misplacements, etc. Charities can immediately send aid, food, and supplies to the correct places. Membership groups can also update records to stay in touch with volunteers and donors.

Accurate and deliverable addresses help nonprofits keep mailing costs low and maintain compliance. Organizations save time, reduce waste, and connect better with the community. It means more help reaches those in need, and nonprofits can do their work smoothly.

Retail and Ecommerce

These businesses can use Poste Italiane address validation to fulfill orders quickly. Stores can send promotions, discount coupons, and loyalty rewards to the correct addresses, keeping customers satisfied and improving retention rates. Accurate addresses also prevent fraud and reduce extra costs from returned mail. Online shops can speed up checkout by quickly verifying customer addresses.

Energy

The correct customer address avoids delays and confusion when installing gas, water, or electricity. It also helps send smart meter upgrade offers to the proper homes. Energy providers can use accurate addresses to plan better routes for maintenance teams, saving time and fuel. Green energy companies can use clean address data to find the best locations for solar or wind projects.

Verified addresses also prevent billing mistakes and fraud. Using the Poste Italiane address validation system, energy businesses can work faster, reduce waste, and serve customers more efficiently.

Similarly, many other industries benefit from address validation. They can ensure correct records across all systems and for all departments, like logistics, IT, marketing, sales, etc.

Limitations of Using Poste Italiane Address Validation

We saw how address validation helps businesses in all sectors access cleansed customer records for different reasons. However, relying on Poste Italiane address validation might not be the correct choice because it has many limitations:

Users cannot Obtain Accurate Geocodes

Poste Italiane address validation does not provide accurate geographical coordinates (such as latitudes and longitudes) for your entered locations. Thus, users cannot pinpoint an exact location on a map or calculate distances accurately.

It can be a significant limitation for businesses that rely on precise geolocation for delivery routes, mapping services, or location-based services. While the system helps ensure addresses are correct, it doesn’t offer the exact geographic coordinates needed for specific applications. Hence, companies might need to pair it with other services, like PostGrid, if they require precise geocoding for their operations or need to integrate mapping features into their systems.

You cannot check the Complete Delivery Address

Poste Italiane address validation cannot check the complete delivery address. It can only help confirm the primary parts of an address, like the street name and city. However, it may not verify every detail needed for precise delivery, such as specific apartment numbers, floor details, or company names in broader buildings. The post office offers delivery information in bits, such as checking the postal codes using the CAP searching tool, getting the street and zone databases, etc. You must manually combine these files to access proper address verification capabilities.

Cannot Get Information on Internal Address Units

The tool does not provide information on internal address units, like apartment numbers or specific floor details. It means that if an address has multiple units in the same building, such as apartments or offices, the system won’t tell you which unit or floor to mail.

Businesses that need to deliver goods or essential documents to the right apartment or office in a building can face issues like inaccurate deliveries and lost items. They need additional details or third-party tools to get the full address, especially for large buildings or complex locations.

It is not Suitable for Bulk Address Verification

The system cannot check large numbers of addresses simultaneously. It works best when you verify one address at a time, making it less suitable for firms needing to process hundreds or thousands of addresses in bulk quickly.

The process could be slow and time-consuming if you have a big list to check. It can cause delays for companies that send out many deliveries or marketing materials. Also, if you want to mail product orders, you must seek another solution that can help you check addresses daily. For example, PostGrid can show you up to a hundred autocomplete suggestions and check up to one million addresses at a time!

The Tool Highly Depends on Manual Inputs to Get Precise Results

The Poste Italiane address-checking service relies heavily on manual inputs for precise results. You must enter the address details carefully, such as the correct street name and postal code. If the information is incomplete or entered incorrectly, the results might not be accurate. It can cause problems for businesses that need fast and precise address checks.

It Does Not Update Its Files Often

Poste Italiane does not update address information every day, week, or month. As discussed above, the postal code updates only come thrice annually. Also, the system might not reflect the latest details if an address changes, such as a street name or postal code update. You must manually keep track of any address changes and input the new information for accurate results. However, you might be unable to keep up, especially if a region has frequent changes.

Manual vs Online Address Validation

As established above, Poste Italiane address validation has several disadvantages. Hence, you might seek other options for your business needs. However, you might also wonder if manually cross-checking every delivery address is worth it. So here’s a quick comparison:

Manual Address Validation

It involves checking and correcting addresses by hand. It can include looking up addresses on maps, calling customers to confirm details, or comparing them with official postal records. Businesses may have employees review each address to fix missing apartment numbers, incorrect ZIP codes, or spelling mistakes. While this method might seem simple, it is prolonged, costly, and prone to human errors.

Relying on manual verification wastes time and resources. Employees can make mistakes, misread information, or forget to check small details. If an incorrect address is not fixed, shipments may be delayed, lost, or returned. It leads to unhappy customers and extra shipping costs.

As businesses grow, manually verifying addresses becomes impossible. Instead of wasting time on outdated processes, companies should use automated address validation tools. These tools instantly check addresses, correct errors, and ensure accurate deliveries, saving time and reducing costs.

Online Address Validation

It uses automated tools to check and correct addresses instantly. Instead of verifying addresses manually, businesses can use software like PostGrid’s address verification API to validate addresses in real-time. These tools compare addresses with official postal databases, fixing mistakes like missing ZIP codes, incorrect street names, or formatting issues. They ensure that every address entered is accurate before a package is shipped.

An address verification API eliminates human errors and reduces the chances of failed deliveries, lost packages, and customer complaints. Businesses can integrate these tools into their website, CRM, or order management system, automatically checking every address as customers enter them. It means no manual corrections, phone calls, or returned mail due to wrong addresses.

With tools like PostGrid, businesses can verify addresses in bulk, clean up old address lists, and ensure customer data is always current. It is beneficial for ecommerce, banking, healthcare, and direct mail companies that send out a lot of shipments. Switching to online address validation improves efficiency, reduces costs, and ensures smooth, error-free deliveries.

Better Alternative to Poste Italiane Address Validation

Since manually checking addresses is a no-go and you need an online tool, businesses might use Poste Italiane address validation. It is an excellent choice if you mail only a few items yearly or only want to check the postal codes. Otherwise, you can switch to PostGrid address verification.

You can integrate its API into your CRMs, websites, or other platforms to get the address verification functionality into your existing workflows. It lets you automatically validate, standardize, and update every delivery address on your system for shipping and other purposes. The best part is your customers can get the autocomplete feature when shopping on your website, letting you get higher sales and repeat orders. Then, you can accurately fulfill deliveries using their validated delivery details. It is a win-win for your company!

Poste Italiane vs PostGrid Address Validation

Parameters	Poste Italiane	PostGrid
Use Cases	Businesses use it to determine whether the post office can send mail to specific addresses or they must use other courier services.	Businesses can use PostGrid address validation to ship transactional, compliance, and marketing mail. They can also use the updated addresses for other purposes, such as business expansion and promotions.
Coverage	It only lets you check the delivery address information of Italian locations.	You can validate addresses of 250+ countries, including Italy.
Address Autocomplete	You cannot add this feature to your system to let users get automatic address suggestions as they type.	This feature, combined with address verification, helps users receive accurate, real-time suggestions as they enter their mailing details.
Standardization	You cannot reformat existing mailing addresses to follow the prescribed address format.	It allows you to standardize all national and international addresses according to the destination country’s postal address format.
Geocoding	It does not give you the geocodes of any location.	PostGrid provides rooftop geocoding for all delivery addresses.
Fuzzy Address Matching	It does not offer this feature and cannot catch up on manual errors, misspellings, etc.	It identifies typos, misspelled words, spacing errors, incorrect abbreviations, etc., to let you get accurate results.
Compliance	You might be unable to comply with some regulations because there is no proper address verification solution or API.	It helps you comply with the local and national rules by updating and cleansing your databases and always mailing to the correct destinations.
Pricing	Using Poste Italiane address validation is expensive because it lacks many features and might cost you mail returns and delivery failures. Also, buying all CAP databases can significantly add to your expenses.	PostGrid offers an all-in-one, reasonable pricing for its address validation solution. You can choose from different plans based on your needs and budget.

Poste Italiane Address Validation

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