AI智能总结
No.2/2025–thinktank@upu.int–www.upu.int Enhancing e-commerce customer experience–exploring the hidden role ofaddressing New econometric evidencefrom the UniversalPostal Union (UPU)reveals the stark reality ofaddress inaccuracy's impact on global postaldelivery. more in successful delivery rates throughaddress accuracy(shown as green bars inFigure 1, overleaf). The best performerscan expectincreases of upto 23%. Drawing uponInsights from UPU’sbig dataplatformand based on checks performed withthePOST*CODE®API1, our analysisshowsthatpostal operators worldwide can increasetheirsuccessful first delivery attempts by up to23% byimproving address accuracy–withamedian improvement of 5.4%across alloperators. This extraordinary range demonstrates thataddress quality is not a marginal operationalconcern but a fundamental driver of postalperformance. Moderate performers still, shows in yellow bars,see meaningful improvements of up to 2%. Anda concerning number of operators experiencenegative impacts from poor address handling(shows as red bars)with delivery success ratesdeclining by as much as 14%. Conversely, poor address quality reducesdelivery success ratesby as much as 14%. As cross-border e-commercecontinues itsexponential growththe proliferation ofnon-standardized addressing threatens the veryfoundation of globale-commerce. The median effect across all operators—a 5.4%improvement in successful first deliveryattempts—represents millions of packagesdelivered successfully rather than requiringcostly redelivery attempts or returns. The solution is simple-an urgentstandardization effort, under theaegis of theUPU,to prevent addressing chaos fromundermining the postal sector's ability to servethe digital economy. In the context of global e-commerce volumes,even a single percentage point improvementtranslates to enormous economic value andcustomer satisfaction gains. Quantifying theaddressaccuracycrisisBigdatareveals thetrueimpact Distributiontells astory For the first time, a comprehensive econometricanalysis—using big data from postal operatorsworldwide andPOST*CODE®l referencedata—has quantified the link between addressaccuracy and successful delivery rates The distribution ofpostaloperators across theimpact spectrum reveals crucial insights aboutthe global postal system's readiness for thedigital age. The majority of operators clusteraround moderate positive impacts, suggestingthat basic address accuracy improvementsyield consistent benefits. The findings are striking:address qualityemerges as one of the most significantdeterminants of first delivery attemptsuccessrates across the global postal network. However, the wide spread between top andbottom performers indicates that best practicesin address management are not beingsystematically shared or implemented acrossthe network. Ourdataanalysisreveals three distinctcategories of impact, with high-performingoperators achievingimprovements of 2%or 1ThePOST*CODE® APIis a service provided bythe UPU that enables address verification based on official postal reference data from member countries. Most telling is the fact thatthePostsachievingthe highest positive impacts are not necessarilythose in developed marketswith establishedaddressing systems. traditional addressing boundaries. Evidence from the UPU SAVE2corroboratesthe econometric findings, showing that address-related issues manifest as Reason Code 10(Invalid address), Reason Code 11 (Addressnot found), and Reason Code 17 (Delivery notpossible due to insufficient detail). This suggests that innovative approaches toaddress validation and standardization canleapfrog traditional limitations, offering hope forrapid improvement across all postal systemsregardless of their current infrastructure. These codes represent not abstract data pointsbuta real-world impact on customer retention,lost revenue, and damaged trust in the postalsystem's ability to serve modern commerce. Fromdatatocrisis:the e-commercechallenge The State of the Postal Sector 2024identifiesrising last-mile costs evenwithinhigh-performing countries.Addressingqualitywasidentifiedas a primary driverof this costincrease. Theexponential growthof cross-border e-commerce has fundamentally altered howaddresses enter the postal system. Unlike traditional mail where senders carefullyformat addresses according to establishedconventions,e-commerce transactions involvea chaotic mix of auto-populated fields, hastymobile entries, machine translations, andsupplementary digital elements that blur When an address cannot be validated pre-dispatch, the cascade of consequencesincludes manual intervention, multiple deliveryattempts, customer service contacts, and of postal address data. It supports improving addressaccuracy andenhancing cross-border deliveryefficiency. The tool is open toallUPU MemberCountries. 2UPU SAVE (Secure Address VerificationEnvironment) is a tool provided by the UniversalPostal Union to help postal operatorsanalysedeliver