Loqate | A GBG Solution

Producing the finest Austrian shoelaces for advocates of high-quality, environmentally friendly shoe supplies, while closing a gap in the lace sector: This was the original mission of a young custom shoemaker, who started his company, Senkels, in 2020 – and who has been conquering the world of shoelaces ever since.

Challenge

Incorrect addresses resulting in major re-delivery costs and stretching available resources.

Solution

Senkels uses Loqate’s address, email and phone validation in their Shopify checkout to generate accurate and timely deliveries – the first time, and every time.

Sucesses

50 % drop in undeliverable mail within six months in addition to 120 % revenue growth (YOY).
Clean customer database with standardized address data for the entire European customer base.
Reduced address entry errors and accelerated data entry within Shopify for online customers with Loqate's address solution.

Pinpoint deliveries = On-point customer happiness

Within just a few years, Senkels has become the top supplier for high-quality, recyclable shoelaces. The young Austrian company’s strategy is based on serving a broad European target group – from stylish suit wearers to casual sneaker lovers – with diverse superior shoelaces available quickly, sustainably and at a reasonable price.

"We embody supreme quality, environmental awareness and reliability – not only in our products, but also in our service for our customers throughout most of Europe. However, these high expectations combined with a diversified international customer base also mean that some of our customers' address data is entered incorrectly, in different languages and formats."

In order to meet our customers' equally high standards for reliable, correct and on-time deliveries, we needed a stronger focus on correct addresses. After thoroughly testing Loqate’s solutions, we decided to integrate the app with our Shopify store through Moving Primates and use Loqate's address, email and phone validation. Our prime goals were to conveniently collect correct customer data and successfully deliver orders the first time. Thanks to the seamless configuration of the app by our Loqate partner Moving Primates, both set-up and integration were stress-free and speedy.

What convinced us most was the easy and fast set-up with the app, requiring 45 minutes only and the fact that it runs automatically in the background. That means no restrictions on our operations whatsoever.

- Daniel Lichtenegger, Founder of Senkels

International top-quality data

In May 2020, Daniel Lichtenegger, launched his project “Senkels” to bring a wider range of custom shoelaces to the market. Thanks to his rapid international growth, Daniel was quickly on the lookout for a solution that would eliminate undeliverable shipments as much as possible and minimize unnecessary distribution costs due to multiple deliveries – in both a domestic and international setting as well as a multilingual context. Loqate is the ideal partner for companies who are looking to expand to hard-to-reach markets where address formats differ greatly from local standards.

"We started exclusively in Austria and Germany. Today we are present in around 70 % of the EU, as well as Switzerland and the UK. And in 2023, we are planning a stronger expansion to Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway."

Thanks to Loqate's first-class global address data, Senkels can now expand to new markets even faster. Loqate's address verification tools help the lace specialist keep global data correct and accurate.

If I had to name one key thing, we've learned so far, it's this: different countries sometimes have completely different standards for address formats, which can drive up the error rate of the data. This results in failed deliveries which leads to frustration for customers and increased costs that immensely jeopardize our profit – and thus the future development of our business. With Loqate's solutions we no longer have to worry about chaotic addresses and frustrated customers.

Bye-bye failed deliveries

We initially used an app that worked exclusively with Google Maps data, and unfortunately didn't produce our desired results. So, we set out to find a more holistic, location-specific solution. However, due to our very high rate of incorrect deliveries at the time, we needed it as fast and seamlessly as possible.

"Our shipments throughout the EU region are usually done by envelope mail. The advantage for us: it's inexpensive, usually very fast and sustainable. Yet the big disadvantage is the lack of tracking and tracing, meaning a wrong address causes an immense effort. Undeliverable letters often end up back in the sender's mailbox 1.5 months later. That's far too long a period to keep a customer waiting. This is why we're tackling the cause right at the source with Loqate," says Senkels founder Daniel Lichtenegger.

Thanks to the integration of the Loqate app with our online store, we have not only been able to reduce incorrect deliveries, but more importantly, we have been able to protect our brand from being damaged in the long term by negative comments on social media, word of mouth etc., thereby maintaining the important trust of our customers.

We achieved major cost savings in a very short period of time thanks to Loqate and Moving Primates. We’ve reduced failed deliveries by an enormous 50 % in just six months. The positive side effect: we increased our YOY sales growth by 120 %.

- Daniel Lichtenegger, Founder of Senkels

Precision and reliability at an international scale

Loqate's easy-to-integrate solutions allow Senkels to quickly and easily reach a global clientele. More precisely, using specialized software that captures, analyzes, standardizes, verifies, cleanses and formats address data for 249 countries and territories. And: our solution recognizes nuances, regardless of language, character set or type of address input.

Applying Loqate's focused address solutions, Senkels benefits from pinpoint data for its pan-European customers, an omni-channel solution for website, store network and app, reliable deliveries and growing customer confidence thanks to stress-free address searches.

The integration of Loqate's global location data products and services provides us with exactly the precision and reliability we need to capture, verify, standardize and enrich address data internationally and at scale.

- Daniel Lichtenegger, Founder of Senkels