How address matching works

What a National Short Address is

Saudi Post (SPL) assigns every building in the Kingdom a National Short Address: four letters followed by four digits, for example RQRA 1234. The letters encode the region, city and district; the digits identify the building. Carriers use it to route parcels without relying on free-text street names, and Saudi customs and delivery rules increasingly require it on shipments.

What Keen Address does with a checkout address

When an order is created with a Saudi shipping address, Keen Address:

1. Normalises the address. Arabic and English input are handled the same way, common abbreviations are expanded, and the city and district are recognised from both the address lines and the city field.
2. Queries the National Address database for candidate buildings.
3. Scores the candidates. A match is accepted only when a single building clearly stands out. Two similar buildings on the same street are treated as unresolved rather than guessed.
4. Writes the short address to the order.

The whole check usually completes within two seconds of the order being created.

Where the short address appears

• Order attribute Short address in the Additional details section of the order page.
• Order metafield keen_address.short_address, which you can use in packing slip templates, Flow and reports.
• The carrier field you choose in Carrier field mapping, so the short address travels with the shipment.

What happens when there is no match

The order is tagged address-unresolved and the shopper is asked to confirm their address over WhatsApp. See Unresolved addresses and the WhatsApp fallback.

What is stored

Keen Address checks addresses in real time. The short address is stored on the order in your store. Keen Address does not keep a copy of your customer records. Details are in the privacy policy.