Address autocompletion in checkout for South African addresses

Shopify App Store
1

Fully aware of the documentation that does not list South Africa as a country supported by address autocompletion at checkout. However, there is something suspicious going on here that we have been trying to get to the bottom of since 2022.

Address autocompletion for merchants selling to customers in South Africa was one of those features that we were always waiting for. We had to field numerous client requests about it and explain that it was potentially coming, but we didn’t know when.

Then, suddenly, without any warning, it started working in 2022! Here is a screenshot of a real Shopify checkout where it is able to serve up address completion suggestions using Google Autocomplete for South African street addresses:

image
image649×563 16.1 KB

Naturally our clients were very happy and started to rely on the benefits of this feature. But then, at some point (we’re not sure exactly when) and without any warning or updates to any changelogs, it stopped working.

We reached out to Shopify multiple times and, finally, after jumping through all of the hoops etc. we were given an explanation, and I quote:

“You mentioned that it used to work before and then it stopped, did I understand this correctly? This could have been because address autocomplete for addresses in select countries had previously been fulfilled by Google, but it is now powered by Shopify”

We bought this explanation as it seemed to make sense, although naturally we were annoyed that Shopify would make this change when it would negatively impact all of the merchants selling in South Africa. In any case, we left it at that for a while until we noticed a few things…

  1. When creating draft orders in the back end Google is still used for address auto completion, and it works with South African addresses.

  2. Even more interesting, when testing stores that sell in countries where address autocompletion is supported, Google is still the engine powering the functionality, not Shopify, as we were told!

So this has led us right round, full circle, back to the same question: Why did address autocompletion for SA addresses work briefly for a time in 2022 and then stop?

I’m posting this here because everytime we open up a support case with Shopify about this issue, (1) it takes about a week to get the point across and then (2) they stop replying and eventually our messages bounce back because they have closed the ticket on their side.

Does anyone have any insights into this?

1 Like
3

Hey @lesterdefreitas, I’m looking in to this for you. We are nearing the end of the day here so I may not have a response until next Monday or Tuesday. This is an interesting one for sure and something I’m happy to dig in to.

1 Like
4

Hey again @lesterdefreitas , I have an answer for you.

First off, I would like to appologize for the wrong information that was shared to you previously mentioning autocomplete was not powered by Google. I can’t find anything suggesting that was the case and from what I can tell it was and is powered by Google currently.

Next, I want to share context on the current list of supported countries. In order for auto complete to be beneficial at checkout it needs to increase conversion rates, reduce checkout time, and increase address accuracy while decreasing post-checkout address edits. The current list of supported countries do this.

What happened in early 2022? I was able to locate this change and as you shared, we did enable autocomplete at the time. It was disabled shortly after though as the quality of the results were not high enough (context above).

This is still a feature we plan on expanding but not something I’m able to offer a concrete timeline on.

1 Like
5

Hi @KyleG-Shopify,

Thank you so much for getting involved here and sharing what is possibly the most (and perhaps only) truly transparent answer to this issue.

I think the part that we are just battling to justify in our own minds though is the reasons for this feature’s removal. You said that “It was disabled shortly after though as the quality of the results were not high enough.”

But surely there was at least an improvement, right? At least, there was for all of our SA based clients who benefitted from it while it was enabled. The proof should be clear in the fact that they are all complaining now that it has been removed and are facing non-stop challenges with incorrect and inaccurate addresses coming through.

Surely any improvement in this area, however minimal, would be better than removing the feature altogether.

So although we really appreciate your open response, it still doesn’t seem like a valid reason to remove the feature. Surely there must be something else at play here. After all, if “the quality of the results” is not good enough, why has this feature been left enabled for pick up options?

See an example below of where autocomplete by Google is working in the checkout for an SA address, but for the pick up option only:

image
image330×500 17.2 KB

1 Like
6

Thanks for the follow up, Lester.

I would say if there was a meaningful improvement that it would still be active. As your clients are mentioning challenges with incorrect and inaccurate addresses coming through, they are likely aware of the importance of getting it right. Getting this wrong can lead to decreased trust, payment processing issues (including increased chargebacks), and shipping and fulfillment issues. I’m sure there are more.

I find this interesting. Do you have the addresses available to you that have been troublesome for your clients? If you do, I would be curious to see how Google handles these addresses currently; if it gets them right or if they are also troublesome with autocomplete as well. I found in their documents they have an example tool here that you can load up in jsfiddle. You can change the javascript to just search for addresses in ZA. Place Autocomplete Address Form  |  Maps JavaScript API  |  Google for Developers

If you do this test (10 or 20 addresses checked would be an interesting sample), let me know so I can pass that feedback on to our teams that work on checkout.

In this scenario where you are locating a pick up location, it’s looking more for a general area to show the nearest locations, not a specific address.

Hope that helps.

7

Thanks for the follow up!

Based on your comments here it seems like the concern is how Google handles address autocompletion with SA addresses.

It may help to know that there are many South African websites that use Google’s autocomplete for address autocompletion. All we are asking is for Shopify to do the same.

And after all, even if in some cases Google got it wrong, surely it’s still better to have some form of autocompletion suggested to help improve accuracy rather than just remove it altogether and thereby guarantee that addresses entered will not be regulated at all?

We are battling with the rationale behind this decision, and the fact remains that our clients were previously enjoying improved address accuracy while this feature was working and are now battling with a higher number of inaccurate addresses since it’s removal.

If the concern with enabling this feature again is for the general public, then is there any way to potentially just enable this feature for specific stores that we request it for? The ones that are asking for it will surely not be able to complain if it is enabled for them since they asked for it. Right?

On this:

I knew you might say this, which is why I kept the best part until now. If what you are saying is true, then why is address autocompletion used when capturing a customer’s shipping address within the customer dashboard?

image
image559×500 22.3 KB

These addresses are used to capture specific addresses and are even pre-populated at checkout for signed in customers.

In addition, if an address if flagged as problematic on an order, and you go to edit it, Google autocomplete is suddenly enabled to help you correct it!

image
image655×853 55.9 KB

So can you see why it just doesn’t make sense to us why this is not enabled in the checkout for shipping addresses, but it is relied upon literally everywhere else? If the issue was that Google’s suggestions were not “good enough”*, then surely it should not be used anywhere.

No, we still think there is something else at play here.

*And honesty, can any anyone to offer up an address autocompletion solution that is ‘better’ that Google’s?

8

Hey @lesterdefreitas,

You bring up some really excellent points here. We appreciate the detailed screenshots and examples you’ve provided. The inconsistency you are highlighting across the platform is a valid concern, and your evidence clearly shows the feature working well in multiple other areas of Shopify.

I’m passing this feedback along to our product teams because these are exactly the kind of detailed, real-world examples they need to see when evaluating decisions like this.

Let me make sure I’m understanding your core request correctly so I can represent it accurately:

What you want: Re-enable Google-powered address autocompletion for South African shipping addresses during checkout, the same way it works in draft orders, customer address management, pickup locations, and order editing.

Why this is important: Your South African clients experienced significantly better address accuracy when this was briefly available in 2022, and are now dealing with higher rates of incorrect addresses since its removal, leading to fulfillment issues and customer service problems.

Does that capture it accurately, or are there additional details I should include?

Now, on to your specific concerns:

The platform inconsistency you’ve identified is real. The reason for this is shipping addresses at checkout are held to a higher standard because poor performance directly impacts conversion rates and delivery success. When we enabled this in 2022, manual entry was working better than autocomplete, which is why it was disabled.

That said, datasets can improve over time. This is why I asked about testing Google’s current autocomplete against your recent problematic addresses. Evidence showing “Google autocomplete would prevent X% of our address issues” would be compelling data for our product teams and demonstrate that performance may have changed since 2022.

We don’t typically enable features for specific stores outside of beta programs or developer previews, but data-backed evidence of improved performance would be the strongest way to advocate for reconsidering this feature more broadly.

Thanks again for continuing to push on this and for the detailed examples. Your persistence on behalf of your clients is exactly what helps us improve the platform.

1 Like
9

Hi @KyleG-Shopify,

Thank you so much for sticking with this along with me. I’m sure you can tell that there is some frustration behind my words, as this has been an ongoing issue for us for the last ±2yrs and we have had nothing but the runaround from Shopify Support on this.

You have grasped the core request 100%, thank you so much.

Regarding testing Google’s autocomplete system for improvements on SA addresses, I will encourage the merchant to run some tests and provide their own evidence of improvements as it is their argument that Google’s autocomplete system was better for them. This will also help to put some accountability on them for this request which they keep pushing at us.

Look, I will say this: Google’s autocomplete suggestions are not always an exact match, especially for unusual addresses, or addresses based on a business location. But, they do help to at least suggest certain address info that can help the customer fill out an accurate address at the end of the day.

So the way we see it is that any help in this regard will be a good thing, and I think that is what the merchants that are negatively affected by the removal of this feature are missing now that it has been removed.

Again I will say that you can look at the shipping address fields for nearly any SA-based online store (not on Shopify of course) and you will see that they generally all use Google autocomplete suggestions to help improve the quality of the addresses that come through on their orders.

10

Hi Lester,

Yes, I can see the frustration. Especially considering this has been ongoing for ±2 years and you have clients expecting clear answers from you.

Keep passing on that feedback when yo receive it and encourage your clients to reach out as well. :notebook:

11

Our clients have been reaching out relentlessly to Shopify directly as well, they tell us.

In the meantime, will you please pass this feedback on to the powers that be?

12

Hey Lester, absolutely, I have already done so.

1 Like
13

Hi @KyleG-Shopify,

Hope you are well! Just to keep this thread alive I want you to know that we have tasked one of the merchants complaining about the lack of Google address autocomplete at checkout with showing ~10 examples of how Google autocomplete helps them to correct addresses. We hope that this will provide solid reasons to reinstate the feature in the checkout for SA (and, in fact, all) addresses.

Thank you!

2 Likes
14

Thanks Lester. That feedback is always appreciated.

15

I am having the exact same issues on my store. I have used the suggestion of @KyleG-Shopify with Google’s autocomplete form and the results were clear… out of 11 addresses tested, which we couldn’t resolve after the order was placed, Google Address completion were able to resolve 10 out of the 11.

This needs to be reconsidered urgently.

In my mind the solution is simple, there is already an option to switch on or off address autocompletion. I don’t think Shopify should take it on themselves to make the decision affecting all stores located in a certain region based on their own metrics which may not nearly paint a realistic picture.

If a store finds it detrimental, they can switch it off. Allow the ones that want to use it, the ability to use it.

2 Likes
16

@TAPE_Administrator that is such a good point - Shopify has already provided the option to turn off autocompletion for merchants who don’t want it.

Those examples of fixed addresses, would you be able to share them here to add to the proof that we need and want this feature back?

PS @KyleG-Shopify what are your thoughts on what @TAPE_Administrator has said?

17

I think these are great suggestions.

My first thought here is that this would work for sellers solely in South Africa, however I’m pretty sure this can’t be toggled per market, so international merchants selling in to regions of South Africa that may not be as consistently accurate, could still run in to issues (this is another feature request on it’s own to toggle this by market).

As for the fixed addresses, @TAPE_Administrator I would suggest not sharing those here. This is a public forum and addresses could be used identify customers. Instead, open a support ticket and share the details of your tests with our support team and have them create an additional feature request with those details.

18

Thanks so much for the input @KyleG-Shopify.

I understand what you mean about the impact this could have on stores that are not based in SA but also sell here.

However it still seems like we are stuck on this thought that the Google Address Autocomplete solution causes “issues” and we are trying to theoretically ‘protect’ stores from running into those potential issues.

And yet just the opposite is true.

It is the unannounced and sudden removal of this feature that has in reality already caused issues for a great many number of stores.

How does it make sense to try to protect merchants from some imagined potential issues by leaving something disabled that is most definitely causing merchants issues right now?

That approach is really frustrating and it just makes us feel like we are banging our heads against a wall here.

What more do we have to do to prove that the same feature that you are using for addresses in certain countries would work for one more country (SA)? And why is it not enough to know that when it was enabled in the past it did really well, and besides that almost all stores that sell to SA on other platforms use it? And let’s not forget all the many places that Shopify still leaves this feature enabled, even within the checkout, for SA addresses and thereby inadvertently admitting that the feature does help?

I swear there is a line of code somewhere back there that contains a list of country codes for which the Google API gets loaded on the checkout address forms. Please can someone just take 2 seconds to add “ZA” to that list?

1 Like
19

Hi @lesterdefreitas @KyleG-Shopify

I agree with you @lesterdefreitas regarding the Google Autocomplete Address function. I have a client that entered her address and Shopify keeps saying that the address is incomplete. I have edited that address so many times every time she places an order and the Google Autocomplete “fixes” the address the whole time (i.e. reverting the address back to the incomplete address). I have never seen the “Powered by Google” option when entering or fixing addresses on Shopify. Why do we have the option to turn the “Autocomplete Address” on and off when it is not working?

I have had to contact clients personally to fix their addresses on the system because the “Autocomplete Address” does not work. Sometimes it is a small thing like the postal code, but do you know how much time it takes to sit and fix addresses? How can that be productive when you are only one person in a business with many orders to get out?

Shopify should give us the option to use the address autocomplete feature instead of having a button on your checkout page that does nothing when turning it on or off.

1 Like
20

@Nelmarie_Prinsloo thank you for your valuable input!

@KyleG-Shopify any further thoughts or updates on this one?

22

Hey @Nelmarie_Prinsloo, thanks for this feedback.

In this case, if you sell internationally to a country where autocomplete is supported at checkout, when you have this turned on, then it will be used. Docs here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/checkout-settings/address-collection-preferences#checkout-setup-autocomplete-orderaddress

@lesterdefreitas I don’t have any updates to share at this point, but improving this is absolutely on our radar. I will post here if I notice anything change.

I would also recommend to keep an eye on the Shopify changelog and filter by checkout for any changes as that is likely where any new countries for checkout autocomplete will be announced.