Because Portless ships directly from fulfillment centers in China and Vietnam, your customer's address is committed to a label earlier in the process than with a domestic carrier. Getting the format right the first time prevents blocked orders, failed deliveries, and Return-to-Sender events.

When an order syncs into Portless, it goes through an address check before it's pushed to the warehouse. If the address fails, for example, the suburb and postcode don't match for an Australian address, the order is blocked and won't ship until you fix it.

Blocked orders appear as exceptions in the Merchant Portal. If you're using Shopify, updating the address there does not automatically update it on the Portless side. You need to notify support separately. If applicable, you may also update the required details using the Portless Merchant Portal.

If an address passes validation but is still wrong (e.g., one digit off in a ZIP code), the order ships and the carrier attempts delivery. This usually leads to a failed delivery or Return-to-Sender.

Note that numeric-only entries are invalid. The street address must include a specific door or house number where one exists. This check happens after checkout. It catches problems before they reach the warehouse, but it can't prevent a bad address from being submitted in the first place. For that, see "Be proactive" above.

The best way to avoid blocked orders, failed deliveries, and Return-to-Sender events is to prevent a bad address from ever being submitted. Not to fix it after the fact. How much control you have over this depends on your Shopify plan.

If you're on Shopify Plus, you can add a checkout validation app that checks and corrects the address before the order is placed. This is true validation. The customer is prompted to fix the address at checkout, so a bad address never makes it into the order in the first place.

Loqate is one of the best options for international address validation and performs significantly better than Shopify's standard/built-in validation, especially for non-US addresses.

This is the most effective way to reduce address-related exceptions, since it stops the problem before Portless ever sees the order.

If you're not on Shopify Plus, checkout-level validation apps aren't available to you. Address correction options only occur post-checkout. Meaning they cannot prevent a bad address from being submitted in the first place.

Because the fix happens after the order is already placed, you'll need to build in an import delay to give yourself time to catch and update the address before it's pushed to the Portless warehouse.

This is a mitigation, not a prevention. It reduces how often bad addresses slip through, but doesn't eliminate the risk the way Plus + checkout validation does.

Before shipping an order to Korea, we need to have:

Other relevant information:

Address format generally follows local postal standards. No documented validation errors on file for these countries. If an order blocks with an exception, contact support.

The window closes once the last-mile tracking number is generated. Act quickly.

If the order has already shipped, the label can't be changed. Your options are to ask the customer to contact the carrier for an address intercept, or wait to see if the delivery fails and a Return-to-Sender is initiated.

When an order can't be delivered, the carrier returns it to a local warehouse in the destination country, not back to Portless in China or Vietnam. Not all returned orders are eligible for re-dispatch. To know more, please visit our Understanding Return-to-Sender Orders page.

Once the package arrives, Portless will contact you with two options:

Who covers the cost? If the RTS was caused by an invalid address, repeated failed delivery attempts, or an unreachable customer, Portless does not cover return or reshipment costs. If the issue was on Portless's end, contact our Customer Support Team.

Can I fix an address after the order has been placed? Yes, as long as the order hasn't shipped yet. Update it in your store and contact Portless support with the Portless order number and the full corrected address. We'll update it in the warehouse system. If applicable, you may also take advantage of our self-help options through the Portless Merchant Portal.

I updated the address in Shopify. Is that enough? No. Shopify updates don't automatically sync to Portless for orders already in fulfillment. You need to contact support directly with the corrected address. Or, submit an edit order request through the Portal.

My Australian order is blocked with a "city postcode mismatch" error. What do I do? Check the suburb-to-postcode mapping using the Australia Post postcode finder and send the corrected address to support. Once updated, we'll retry the warehouse push.

Is there a way to stop bad addresses from being submitted at checkout, instead of fixing them after the order is placed? Yes, if you're on Shopify Plus, you can add a checkout validation app that validates the address before the order is placed. On Shopify Basic / non-Plus plans, validation options only run post-checkout, so they can't block a bad address from being submitted; building in an import delay gives you a window to catch and fix it before it reaches the warehouse.