Unusual characters

What this rule does

An address line like “123 Main St 🏠” can fail at the label stage, after you've already paid for the order processing. Carrier systems are built for letters, numbers, and standard punctuation, and this rule keeps addresses inside that world.

What it catches

• Emoji anywhere in the address
• Decorative symbols that aren't part of any real address

Accented letters (é, ö, ß) and normal address punctuation are always allowed. Your buyers in Montréal and München are safe.

What your buyer sees

Set to Block at checkout

Your buyer sees the message right at the address field, inside Shopify's own checkout, before payment. They fix the address and pay. The check runs inside checkout itself, so it adds no waiting time and nothing changes in your theme. Our default message:

You can replace it with your own wording in the rule's settings.

Set to Warn after purchase

The sale completes normally. On the order confirmation page we ask the buyer to double-check the address, and when we have a verified fix they can apply it with one tap. Orders with unresolved address problems are tagged address-unverified in your admin so you can catch them before fulfillment. This mode works with every payment method, including Apple Pay and Google Pay express checkouts.

If a check can't run for any reason, the order goes through untouched. We never hold up a sale on our own uptime.

Set it up

Open Address Verifier in your Shopify admin, go to Settings, and pick Unusual characters. Choose Off, Warn after purchase, or Block at checkout, write your own checkout message if you want one, and save. Changes are live on your next checkout. No deploy, no theme edit.

New installs start with this rule set to Warn after purchase. It catches real mistakes without turning away a single sale.