Around the World in 80 Days (with Smarty!)

Phony passports. Runaway trains. Rogue elephants. Hot air balloons. Phileas Fogg dodged them all in the 1956 movie adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel, Around the World in 80 Days. 

His race was against time. Today, your ecommerce business is running a race of its own; delivering quickly, accurately, and affordably across a world full of logistical landmines.

Fortunately, you don’t need a valet named Passepartout to guide you (although wouldn’t that be fun?!) 

You just need Smarty.

Smarty is your passport to global address data perfection, specializing in address verification, autocomplete, geocoding, and enrichment. 

Want to try them out? Test them here for free or keep reading to continue the adventure! 

Here’s where our balloon will be touching ground in this blog:

• Plan your journey
• Every journey starts with the right address (and autocomplete)
• Skip detours with address verification
• Pinpoint the rooftop with rooftop geocoding
• The perfect pair: Verification + autocomplete
• Smarty makes global journeys seamless
• Finish your journey under budget
• TL;DR: Fogg may have needed Passepartout; you only need Smarty

Now, let’s get movin’. In Verne’s classic tale, Fogg bets that he can travel the world in record time. 

Retail ecommerce brands are making a similar wager: that they can reach customers across the world quickly, cost-effectively, and without delivery disasters. And like Fogg’s balloon, Smarty lifts your business above the chaos, helping you navigate address validation, international shipping, and rooftop-precise delivery, all while giving you the birdseye view of common (and avoidable) problems in ecommerce.

Let’s unpack the route to global ecommerce success—no elephants required.

Before Fogg charted a route, he needed reliable maps and local intel—did the city have steamer docks? Could he depend on train schedules? Ecommerce retailers need the same kind of reconnaissance, and that’s where Smarty’s address data enrichment comes in.

Plan your journey

Any intrepid balloonist (or ecommerce brand, as the case may be) needs a reliable crew. Smarty’s address verification comes equipped with powerful address metadata that helps ecommerce companies avoid mustache-twirling stowaways intent on shipping fraud and account takeovers. 

CMRA (Commercial Mail Receiving Agency): helps identify when orders are being shipped to mail forwarding services, which fraudsters often use to avoid detection. 

DPV (Delivery Point Validation): can surface the kind of fabricated, manipulated,  or non-deliverable addresses often associated with synthetic identities. 

RDI (Residential Delivery Indicator): distinguishes between residential and business addresses. Unusual patterns, like high-value personal items being shipped to business addresses, can signal potential fraud.

Vacancy data: identifies whether a property is currently occupied. Fraudsters sometimes use addresses of vacant properties to more easily intercept packages. 

With the crew identified, the next task is to map the journey itself; demographic research is essential when earmarking your brand’s next steps. Using Smarty’s US GeoReference product, you can retrieve any address’s precise census geoIDs (including census block, tract, and CBSA), then map transaction data to census demographics; it’s the perfect way to keep your ecommerce journey heading in the right direction. 

Every journey starts with the right address (and autocomplete)

Just like Phileas Fogg wouldn’t leave London without a route in mind, you shouldn’t start a delivery without a clean, accurate address. That’s where Smarty’s US and international address autocomplete solutions come in.

📦 Faster checkouts: Smarty autocomplete reduces friction and speeds up form fills because nothing says “abandoned cart” like a six-field address form that must be filled out manually (especially on mobile).

💸 Fewer cart abandonments: 43% of online shoppers say long or confusing checkouts lead them to bail. Autocomplete can reduce cart abandonment by 30%.

🗺️ Global savvy: Whether you’re shipping to Paris, Peru, or Papua New Guinea, Smarty autocompletes addresses using native formatting. You won’t need a globe-trotting valet to get the address right.

Skip detours with address verification

Phileas Fogg had a lot of detours: a broken train in India, an arrest in Hong Kong, and, yes, a runaway sledge in the American Midwest. You? You just want packages to arrive on time.

Smarty’s address verification keeps your shipping route on track.

🚫 No more failed deliveries: Verify addresses before shipping to avoid costly mistakes. Failed deliveries can cost up to $17 each.

📉 Stop the bleeding: Up to 5% of ecommerce packages are returned due to bad addresses. Verification solves this before it ever leaves the warehouse.

📖 Real story: One international retailer, Shippo, reduced failed deliveries by 22% after integrating Smarty's address verification, proving that a little data hygiene goes a long way, even in cross-border chaos.

Pinpoint the rooftop with rooftop geocoding

Imagine if Fogg’s balloon landed in the wrong country—“Oops, this isn’t Yokohama, it’s Yakutsk.” That’s exactly how it feels when a delivery driver shows up at the wrong house.

When that happens, the driver has two choices: 

1. Try to play detective by calling the customer, double-checking the address, or wandering the neighborhood for clues
2. Mark the package as undeliverable and move on. 

Most drivers will tell you solving address mysteries isn’t in their job description. Instead, they’ll send the package back to you, and you’ll end up paying to ship it again—this time with a better address.

With Smarty’s geocoding solutions (especially US Rooftop Geocoding), you don’t just get close—you get exact.

📍 No more wandering drivers: Rooftop-level coordinates help US delivery drivers find the exact building, not just the block.

⏱️ Save time and fuel: Exact delivery points improve last-mile efficiency. Take a look at this last-mile case study with Deduce Technologies to see the results they achieved!

🛠️ Enable in-home services: Retailers use rooftop geocoding to dispatch furniture assembly crews, appliance installers, and even cable techs—no guessing games.

The perfect pair: Autocomplete + verification

Like Fogg and his loyal companion Passepartout, autocomplete and verification work best together. One ensures that newly entered addresses added to the trip are accurate from the start. The other ensures that existing addresses are still up to snuff, even after address changes that happen behind the scenes, often without the knowledge of the person or business currently residing and operating from that address.

✅ Autocomplete helps shoppers enter correct data upfront.
✅ Verification confirms that the address is valid, deliverable, and formatted properly, especially over time.

💬 “Conversion rates are very strong now.” — Andrew Boellstorff, Speedway Motors
 This isn’t just a shipping improvement—it’s a business transformation.

Smarty makes global journeys seamless

Phileas Fogg faced new customs, languages, and rules in every country. International ecommerce is different in that it’s now more complex. Additionally, you have to do it without missing a delivery window.

🌎 Smarty supports 250 countries and territories, validating addresses using country-specific rules and formats. You can check out our global address formatting examples.

🧭 Absorb complexity: 57% of shoppers abandon international purchases due to confusing shipping options.

🛫 Smarty helps you conquer international checkout barriers with intelligent autocomplete and globally-aware verification. No translation book required.

Finish your journey under budget

Fogg made it around the world in 80 days—barely—and returned with his finances intact. With Smarty, you can do the same. 

💰 Cost savings:

• $17 saved per failed delivery avoided
• 30% boost in conversion from faster checkout
• Between 20% and 30% revenue growth

📈 Smarty ROI Calculator: Plug in your failed delivery rate, cart abandonment stats, and average order value—see how quickly Smarty pays for itself.

TL;DR: Fogg may have needed Passepartout; you only need Smarty

Ready to chart your own globe‑trotting ecommerce journey—without the drama of rogue elephants, arrests in Hong Kong, or missing steamships? 👉 Try Smarty for free!