How to Optimise Your Shopify Checkout for the Saudi National Address Requirement

If you sell to customers in Saudi Arabia, capturing and using the National Address is no longer optional. From 1st January 2026 couriers must reject deliveries that are missing the National Address, and merchants should expect to face delays and additional costs if they don’t get up to speed with the new system. 

From failed deliveries and courier rejections to unhappy customers and rising support tickets, the impact of missing or invalid National Addresses shows up quickly. And while Shopify gives you the flexibility to ask for more information at checkout, it does not verify whether what customers enter is real, and there is not currently a dedicated National Address field.

That gap—between collecting a National Address and confirming it’s valid—is where most merchants run into trouble.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through:

• What the Saudi National Address requirement means for Shopify merchants
• What you can do manually inside Shopify (and where it becomes painful)
• Why simply adding a field is not enough
• How verification solves the problem properly (and smoothly)

We see and deal with incomplete address issues every single day - so this guide is about helping you avoid problems before they hit your ops team and impact your margins.

Why the Saudi National Address Matters at Checkout

The Saudi National Address is a standardised, government-issued address system used by logistics providers across the Kingdom. Carriers will now be instructed to  reject shipments that don’t include a valid National Address creating delays, extra costs, and poor customer experience.

For merchants, this creates three risks:

1. Orders that cannot be delivered
2. Higher return-to-origin and re-delivery costs
3. Customer frustration and lost trust

The earlier you handle this, the fewer downstream problems you’ll face.

The Core Problem: Asking for a National Address Is Not the Same as Verifying One

This is the most important thing to understand.

You can ask customers for their National Address.

But Shopify will accept literally anything they type.

For example:

• Random letters and numbers
• An incomplete short code
• A phone number pasted into the address field
• A made-up code just to get through checkout faster

From Shopify’s perspective, the field is “filled in.”

From a courier’s perspective, the address is invalid.

This is where many merchants think they’re compliant, but still see delivery failures. Remember that this is a huge change for your customers, many of whom won’t have heard about the National Address system yet, or have registered for one. 

The risk here is that you won’t know about any delivery issues until the moment the parcel is rejected by the carrier, or isn’t delivered successfully. That’s too late to save you cost and time.

Option 1: The Manual Shopify Setup 

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Let’s start with what you can do using Shopify alone.

Step 1: Add a Required Field for National Address

Most merchants add a required field by:

• Using address line 2
• Adding a custom checkout field
• Renaming the field to something like “Saudi National Address / Short Code”

This ensures customers can’t check out without entering something.

✅ Better than nothing

❌ Still not validated

Step 2: Add Checkout Messaging to Explain What You Want

To improve accuracy, you’ll likely need to:

• Add explanatory text under the field
• Include examples of a correct National Address
• Warn customers that delivery may fail without it

This turns into a mini UX project:

• Multiple language versions (Arabic + English)
• Trial and error to see what customers understand
• Ongoing tweaks based on failed deliveries

And even then, customers in a hurry or customers who are confused will still type anything that lets them proceed.

Step 3: Manually Check Addresses After the Order Is Placed

This is where things get really painful.

To truly protect deliveries, teams end up:

• Reviewing orders manually
• Spot-checking National Address formats
• Contacting customers via WhatsApp, SMS, or email
• Holding orders until clarification arrives

At low order volume, this might feel manageable.

At scale, it becomes:

• A daily operational bottleneck
• A growing support burden
• A delay that directly affects delivery SLAs

And it still relies on human judgement, not actual verification.

The Reality of the Manual Approach

Yes, it’s possible.

But it is:

• Time-consuming
• Error-prone
• Impossible to scale cleanly
• Stressful for ops and CX teams

Most importantly, it still doesn’t guarantee that what the customer provides is a real, valid National Address recognised by couriers and accurate to their true location.

Why Verification Is the Missing Piece

To truly optimise your Shopify checkout for Saudi Arabia, you need to go beyond required fields.

You need to ensure that:

• The National Address exists and is accurate
• The format is correct
• The address is recognised by delivery networks
• The order can move straight into fulfilment

This is what real-time verification solves.

Instead of accepting free-text input, verification checks the address after checkout and before the shipment is processed

That means:

• The customer gets a smoother experience 
• Only orders that are invalid are subject to additional processing
• No delivery surprises

How Verification Fits Naturally into Shopify Checkout

With a verification plugin:

• Customers are guided to enter a valid National Address
• After submission, invalid entries are automatically flagged
• The customer is automatically contacted with instructions to update their National Address 
• The new National Address is verified against the official National Address Database
• The order is tagged as ready to ship 

From the customer’s point of view:

• Checkout still feels fast
• Errors are caught early
• Delivery confidence increases

From the merchant’s point of view:

• Orders flow cleanly into fulfilment
• Courier acceptance rates improve
• Support tickets drop
• Operations scale without extra headcount

And crucially, this happens before the order is pushed out of the warehouse.

Why This Matters Even More as Regulations Tighten

As enforcement around National Address compliance increases, merchants who rely on manual checks are exposed to:

• Higher failure rates
• Potential fines or carrier restrictions
• Inconsistent customer experience

Optimising checkout now isn’t just about compliance, it’s about future-proofing your Saudi operations.

Manual vs Verified: A Quick Comparison

Manual Shopify Setup

• Requires custom fields and messaging
• Still allows fake or invalid entries
• Needs ongoing human review
• Slows fulfilment
• Breaks at scale

Verified Checkout Flow

• Validates addresses in real time
• Prevents incorrect orders
• Reduces operational overhead
• Improves delivery success
• Scales effortlessly

Final Thought: Optimisation Is About Prevention, Not Fixing Mistakes Later

Most delivery problems in Saudi Arabia don’t start in the warehouse, they start at checkout.

You can absolutely ask customers for their National Address, this step is now necessary.

But unless you verify it, you’re still taking a risk on every order.

Optimising your Shopify checkout means designing out those risks before they hit your ops team, and before they impact your customers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can I just make the National Address field required in Shopify?

You can, but Shopify does not verify the input. Customers can enter random characters and still complete checkout.

Why do couriers reject orders with National Addresses filled in?

Because the address may not be valid, complete, or recognised by delivery systems, even if the field isn’t empty.

Is manual checking a viable long-term solution?

Only at very low volume. As order numbers grow, manual checks quickly become expensive, slow, and unreliable.

When should verification happen, before or after checkout?

Catching errors early prevents fulfilment delays and customer frustration. Automation and AI really helps with this as it allows a smooth customer experience whilst protecting you from excessive costs and delays. 

Do customers understand what a Saudi National Address is?

Some do, many don’t. Clear guidance helps, but validation is what ensures accuracy.

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