Address formats look interchangeable until a parcel fails. In the Netherlands the house number comes after the street; in France it comes first. A German postcode is five digits and sits before the city; a Dutch postcode is four digits plus two letters and sits after the street, before the city. Put either in the wrong field and the carrier's automated sort may still deliver it — or may send it to a depot where it sits until a human reads the label.
This guide is a formatting reference for the main EU markets. It is not a list of destinations, and it does not replace the checkout form's own validation.
The three elements that break most often
- House number position. Street-plus-number versus number-plus-street is not cosmetic: sorting software parses the line by pattern.
- Postcode placement. Some countries put the postcode before the city, others after the street and before the city, others attach it to the city name with a dash.
- Province, state or county codes. Only Italy and Spain commonly require a province code, and in Italy it is often written in brackets after the city.
Country-by-country reference
| Country | Typical layout | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | Name, street + number, 5-digit postcode + city | Musterstraße 12, 10115 Berlin |
| Austria | Street + number, 4-digit postcode + city | Mariahilfer Straße 12, 1060 Wien |
| Netherlands | Street + number, 4 digits + 2 letters + city | Damrak 12, 1012 LG Amsterdam |
| Belgium | Street + number, 4-digit postcode + city | Meir 12, 2000 Antwerpen |
| France | Number + street, 5-digit postcode + CITY | 12 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris |
| Italy | Street + number, 5-digit CAP + city + province | Via Roma 12, 20121 Milano (MI) |
| Spain | Street + number + floor, 5-digit postcode + city | Calle Mayor 12, 3º B, 28013 Madrid |
| Portugal | Street + number, 4 digits + 3 digits + city | Rua Augusta 12, 1100-053 Lisboa |
| Poland | Street + number, 2 digits + 3 digits + city | ul. Marszałkowska 12, 00-001 Warszawa |
| Czechia | Street + number, 3 digits + 2 digits + city | Václavské náměstí 12, 110 00 Praha 1 |
| Sweden | Street + number, 3 digits + 2 digits + city | Drottninggatan 12, 111 51 Stockholm |
| Denmark | Street + number, 4-digit postcode + city | Strøget 12, 1160 København |
| Finland | Street + number, 5-digit postcode + city | Mannerheimintie 12, 00100 Helsinki |
| Ireland | Street + number, city, county, Eircode last | 12 Grafton Street, Dublin 2, D02 X285 |
What to do with apartment and floor details
Floor, door and building codes belong in the second address line, not appended to the street. Carriers print a fixed character count per line, and a long line gets truncated at the end — which is exactly where the apartment number usually sits.
Write it short and consistent:
- Apartment: "Apt 4B" or "Whg. 4B" in German-speaking countries.
- Floor: "3rd floor" or "3. OG" — carriers read both, but not on the same label.
- Building or courtyard: "Rear building, 2nd entrance" if the street has more than one entrance.
- Access codes: only if the carrier prints a phone number field. Gate codes in an address line are often cut, and publishing them on a label is a security trade-off.
The phone number is part of the address
In most of the EU, the phone number is what saves a delivery when the street is ambiguous. Drivers call before returning a parcel to the depot, and a number that rings is the difference between a delivered parcel and a failed attempt.
Use a number that works on the delivery day, including the country code. A number without a country code on a cross-border parcel is effectively useless, because the driver's phone cannot dial it.
The number also matters when the carrier has to choose between two entrances, or when the street name exists in more than one district of the same city. Delivery windows and how often a driver will attempt a call differ between the main networks, which is compared in DHL, DPD and GLS for vape deliveries.
If the number is wrong or missing, the parcel is not necessarily lost, but it is far more likely to end up as a failed attempt. What happens at that point is described in what happens if you miss a vape delivery.
Fixing an address after ordering
Checkout validation catches format errors, not factual ones. A correct-looking address with the wrong house number passes every check and still fails at the door.
The window to fix it is short. Before dispatch, the shop can usually edit the label; after the parcel is scanned into the network, only the carrier can change it, and only before it reaches the final depot. The procedure and the cut-off points are in changing a delivery address after ordering a vape.
If the address cannot be changed and the parcel is already moving, the realistic options are a pickup-point redirect or collection with ID. Both depend on the carrier reaching you, which brings the phone number back into play.
Addresses that reliably fail
Some formats are accepted by the checkout form and still cause problems downstream:
- Company names instead of people. A mailroom cannot match a parcel to an individual. See receiving a vape parcel at work.
- PO boxes. Most carriers refuse them for age-restricted goods, and lithium-battery shipments often cannot be delivered to one at all.
- Two street names in one line. Common at corners; the sort reads only the first.
- Missing house number. Surprisingly common in countries where numbers are assigned per building rather than per street.
- Postcode in the city field. The carrier's system expects the postcode field and will not parse a city line that contains digits.
An address that fails in one of these ways usually produces a return rather than a delivery. The sequence that follows is covered in parcels returned to sender, and it is slower than fixing the address beforehand.
Frequently asked questions
Does the order of the address lines matter?
Yes for automated sorting, and the order differs by country. Follow the table above rather than translating your home format into the checkout form.
Should the city name be in capitals?
France expects it in capitals by convention, and some carriers' sorters normalise it. Elsewhere it does not matter, as long as the spelling matches the postcode.
Can I use a shortened street name?
No. Use the official street name. Abbreviations that are obvious to a local driver are not obvious to an automated sort, and "St." can mean street or saint.
What if my country uses a province code?
Only Italy and Spain commonly require one, and in Italy it is written in brackets after the city. If the checkout has a separate province field, use it rather than appending the code to the city.
Does a correct address guarantee delivery?
No. It removes the address-related failure modes, which are the majority. Courier access, absence, and age checks are separate issues; the tracking symptoms of each are described in what a stalled tracking page means.
For the delivery windows that apply to each country once the address is correct, see EU vape delivery times.
