ByAVI STERN

The purchasing journey of a customer is like a roller-coaster ride. Even after going through all the processes, a transaction can turn away at checkouts. The inconvenience associated with the purchasing process might be responsible for this, like long registration procedures, difficult-to-understand forms, and even website issues. People who came to make purchases online, leaving your website, can go to your closest competitors for buying products similar to yours. There are several other reasons behind the high bounce rates of the customers. This article will talk about poor data verification, which is one of the leading causes.


Customers share their billing address during checkouts, and in return, they expect a smooth verification process and quick responses. The AVS system takes a few seconds to accept or reject a transaction. The system verifies the correct data and accepts it, but the transaction gets declined in case of AVS mismatch. The process helps the customers to have a swift purchasing journey, and the merchants can get secured and give a better customer experience.


What is an AVS check?

The AVS check can be described as the process wherein the system verifies the buyer's billing address. The verification is done against the address of the credit card owner. If both the information matches, it is considered a safe transaction. The AVS check is mainly conducted when buyers try to execute Card Not Present (CNP) transactions, i.e., they are physically unable to provide the credit/debit card, which increases the risk associated with the transaction.


The address verification checks are executed by the system and are not visible to the customers. Therefore, they would only know if the transaction has been accepted or not.


How does the system work?

To get a better understanding of the AVS check, you should know the way the system works:

  • Customers visit an online store, select their favorite products, fill out all the information, and then check out. On this page, they can either fill in their address details or click on the pre-saved payment information. The website then connects to the AVS system, which captures the billing information, and it gets transferred to the credit card brand by the payment gateway for matching the address.
  • The credit card brand sends the information received to the relevant bank, which then compares it with the customer's address on their system. These processes are done automatically by the AVS system.
  • After the check has been conducted, the system returns the authorization status and AVS code to the website gateway. If both the addresses match, then the transaction is successful, or else it would fail.

The process might seem to be a long one, but all of it is done automatically. First, the website owner sets up a payment gateway before the website launches, which helps in AVS check and determines the way to use it. Once the configuration is complete, the accepted and rejected transactions are executed automatically by the system.

Why do you need an AVS check?


The AVS system helps to optimize the checkout procedure, which is its primary benefit. All the work is done in a few seconds, which saves the time of the customers. The merchants also feel secure due to the check; it is designed to reduce frauds and disputes, which is quite common in any e-commerce business.


How to ensure a seamless checkout experience for customers?

Firstly, integrate your AVS system with the key credit card processors. It will boost the checkout process, and your customers will not have to wait for a long time to know the transaction status. It will also help in reducing fraudulent activities. AVS system is a must-have feature for all e-commerce businesses.


There are some additional ways of optimizing your checkout process and helping the AVS system to run the verification process:

  • Analyzing your customer's behavior is a great way to understand why they abandon the shopping cart at checkouts. There is different software available for the analysis which monitors what the customer does coming to your website. You can formulate strategies and make changes to your website to reduce the customer bounce rate. 
  • Ensure that your website is customer-friendly. Websites that are hard to navigate and understand can drive visitors away, concentrating on creating user-friendly website designs. Go for good UI/UX experts to ensure that the website looks good and equally convenient. Good design solutions can positively impact your customers, and it will reduce the chances of them abandoning your site.
  • Try to save the time and effort of your customers at each stage of the purchasing journey. Implement address autocomplete in your website, automatically fixing the billing address format as the customer starts typing it. Also, customers will not have to type the full address manually, which will improve their overall user experience.
  • Connecting your CRM software with the AVS system can be a good idea. It will help auto-completion of the address and ensure that the street address you have entered is in a standard format for emails. It helps in improving the order delivery rate along with improving securing. With the correct address format, delivery will be fast, seamless and the rate of undelivered products will be less.

There are several tools available in the market that can help you with address auto-completion and address verification. These platforms make staying connected with your customers and stakeholders easy and convenient. These also help in auto-completion of addresses and address verification at checkout for greater data security. In addition, you should opt for an AVS system that can integrate with your CRM and analytics software for better checkout optimization. The integrations will make the whole process automated and cut down the time of running the essential checks. And, hire good website and UI/UX designers to improve the customer-friendliness of your website.


So, with AVS check, both the parties, the buyers and sellers, can get benefitted. So, if you are running an e-commerce business, make sure to integrate an efficient AVS system on your website today!