In developed nations, the well-structured infrastructure offers clear and specific addresses for each home and business. But in underdeveloped areas, roads often are unmarked, and no standard numbering system exists to identify a particular location by number. Such gaps make delivery by global firms nearly impossible, because there is no efficient way to standardize shipping to a home with no address or street name attached to it. Therefore, some innovative logistics operators are developing new approaches to designate homes and businesses, such as one option that divides the entire planet into a set of 10’  10’ squares and assigns a three-word designation to each square. Other firms rely on GPS data, and one Kenyan firm creates a form of address by combining geographic data with a picture of each consumer’s front door. Delivery orders placed through mobile devices facilitate these processes, because they enable the service provider to use the mobile data associated with the order to locate the person more precisely. Such efforts continue though, especially as e-tailers seek new and better ways to access the valuable, growing market of developing economy consumers.

Source: Erica E. Phillips, The Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2016