A 3m x 3m Grid Planet Wide Geocoding System

Ronald:
Hi, welcome to another Do the Woo Podcast with me, Ronald. I also am a partner marketer at WooCommerce, but in this episode I’m joined by Phoebe and Jash from what3words, and if you’re not familiar with what3words are, let me share you two examples where I used it myself. Last year… I have two kids, by the way. We were in a massive field in a dark at Bonfire Night, which is a tradition here in the UK, and my eldest son had a phone and I shared with him where I am just purely by using three words, and another occasion, this is quite recently, where I had to direct my son with a dinghy to come and collect me from the shore. Again, no address and visibility was pretty much none. So, if you’re still confused what what3words are, without further ado, let me introduce you to my two guests, Phoebe and Jash. Phoebe, do you want to start off first and introduce yourself fully, what you do?

Phoebe:
Yeah, of course. Thanks so much, Ronald. Yes, my name’s Phoebe. I work at what3words in the partnerships team. I work specifically on our software partnerships in the e-commerce and logistics space. I’ve been with the company four years. Actually, coming up on five. So, in that time, I’ve seen a huge amount of growth in the e-commerce logistics space, which has always been really, really exciting, starting working with SMEs, now growing to where we have a whole team who actually work with SMEs and we’ve got partnerships with the likes of every DHL, Boohoo Group. Yeah. That’s my role at what3words and it’s been a really exciting journey so far.

Jash:
Adding to Phoebe, Ronald, I am Jash. I work at what3words as well. Similar to Phoebe, I also work in the partnerships team focusing on global e-commerce and logistics ecosystem partnerships. My focus more nowadays actually is more on India because that’s where we see a lot of momentum with what3words. It’s a focus on both technology partnerships in India and also enterprise relationships, so that’s particularly larger retailers and carrier partners in India as well. Sort of a spinoff of what Phoebe’s doing, but more focused on India.

Ronald:
Excellent. Well, I’m sure that there are still a few folks out there who don’t quite know what what3words are. I think we’ve given them plenty of hints. That’s something to do with delivery and global expansion. So, who’s the best place to, in a few sentences, explain? I mean, I’m sure you’ve done it so many times. What is what3words?

Jash:
Oh, sure. Well, just to jump in and give you a quick three-line sort of introduction, what3words is a simple way to talk about locations. Now, that means different things for different consumers, but essentially, we have an app and a map site for consumers where they can discover their own what3words address. Essentially, what our technology has done is we’ve divided the entire world into a grid, each of three meters square. Each of which has their own what3words address. This is basically a string of three simple words, which sort of related to GPS coordinates because well, nobody really remembers and uses GPS coordinates verbally, right? Especially when it comes to human to machine communication or human to human communication, people wouldn’t really talk coordinates out loud, but you can talk words out loud. You can remember words. You can communicate words. So, it’s easy to describe locations no matter where you are. So, if you’re at a festival or if you’re in a large apartment complex which has four or five gates or you’re on the countryside, let’s say, you’re lost somewhere, what3words is a very easy tool to communicate where you are exactly.

Ronald:
That’s a really good description. It’s perfect, isn’t it? It really is perfect. I’ve tried it, like I said, with my son over the… We were sailing and then I radioed it over the walkie-talkies to pick me up because there was no 4G signal, and he had what3words on his app. So, even on a low data usage area, it works perfectly, in the middle of a field, and it’s almost impossible once you’ve used it in these sort of scenarios to imagine that there isn’t something like it because like you said, coordinates useless if you don’t know exactly what you’re talking about. I am sure you’ve heard of many more examples where it saved lives, it done all sorts of amazing things.

Phoebe:
Yeah. Over the years, we’ve had so many stories that come through. We actually have on there on our website where you can see these kind of live stories coming through about what3words being used in emergency scenarios, and I think what’s been really amazing over the last few years is the different types of businesses who are using what3words as well. It’s not just in emergency situations. Even in the UK where we like to think we are quite well addressed here, actually, there are lots of issues that you can’t take for granted, and your satnav says you’ve arrived at your destination. You look around and actually think, “No, I haven’t.”
We’re trying to resolve those little inefficiencies in day-to-day life. I think street addresses weren’t necessarily designed for the way that we use them today, and I think it’s those little inefficiencies that we’re always trying to save. So, as Jash mentioned, the large apartment complexes we often live in. All these beautiful new build estates on the outsides of large cities often don’t get an address for six to 18 months, and then, obviously the rural examples of houses being named, not numbered and all those kind of things that we’re really trying to hopefully save those efficiencies and help people navigate to exactly where they want to be going, whether you’re a delivery driver, going to visit your best mate for a cup of tea, or an emergency service as well. We’ve started to see all those different use cases come true over the last decade that we’ve been around, and it’s been really amazing to see that.

Ronald:
Yeah. But who’s behind this idea? Where did it start? Can you give a little bit of a history behind what3words?

Phoebe:
Yeah, of course. Actually, it came out of the music industry. Our CEO, one of our co-founders used to work at the music industry, working in setting up gigs in rural areas or large concert venues and became quite frustrated with equipment and bands not turning up where they’re meant to be going. He tried to use GPS coordinates, but trying to get a delivery lorry or a band to use a GPS coordinate to get to a location is always the easiest thing. So, he said, “There must be something better than this,” and with two friends designed what3words. Using three words, as Jash was saying, is a lot easier than a GPS. Though our system is based on GPS, so we’re not completely reinventing the wheel. We’re just taking that really accurate string of numbers and converting it into something a lot more human friendly.

Ronald:
By the way, I must say as a logo with using three forward slashes, that’s just so spot on when it comes to branding.

Jash:
Yeah. That’s actually good to hear. We get that a lot and we’re really, really proud of that. That’s all thanks to our design team and basically everyone who worked on that. It sort of becomes synonymous with the what3words address. I don’t know if you’ve actually seen the format of whenever you see a what3words address, it always begins with three slashes. So, it’s slash, slash, slash followed by word.word.word, which is why that sort of becomes synonymous with the what3words address, so we’re very proud of that logo.
I’m very happy that it’s been adopted so well globally. One thing that I would add to what Phoebe mentioned previously as well is another problem that we’ve seen globally when it comes to addressing is there isn’t one standard addressing system globally. Different countries have different kinds of addressing systems, so a lot of the work I do here in India has shown that to me. So, India itself, different cities in India, different states in India use addresses in different ways. The way we have postcodes in the UK, we don’t have the same thing in India over here. It’s pin codes in India. So, it doesn’t really work the same way, and then also, in different countries, for example, in Saudi, they use something else altogether. What we try to do with what3words is we try to make a global standard of addressing wherein the same format of the three forward slashes followed by word.word.word can be used in almost every single country in the same exact format. We’re also in 55 languages, so it need not necessarily be English-speaking countries, which is actually something we’re very proud of.

Ronald:
Oh, that’s really interesting. I didn’t realize. So, not every country sees their what3words in English words.

Jash:
Yeah. Yeah. Basically, people in different countries have the option to change their language. So, while I’m sitting here in India, I have 12 options to sort of change my language to any of the 12 Indian languages that we have to offer, and that’s basically super helpful because again, just India’s such a diverse country. People speak so many languages. If we just use what3words in English, there’s a very good chance that not everyone would sort of have access to it. Not everyone would be able to use it as well. But now that since we do offer so many languages, we do see that it’s actually being used a lot more in the different languages that we have to offer.

Ronald:
That’s really inclusive by the way.

Jash:
Yeah.

Phoebe:
Yeah. I was going to say, if you’re a Swedish tourist in Seoul, you can navigate Seoul in either Korean, English, Swedish, any language that you’d like to navigate any country in the world. If we have it as one of our part of that 55, you can navigate that country using it. So, that was really important to us was to make sure that everyone can talk about anywhere in the world in whatever language they wanted to choose. Yeah. We’re at 55 so far.

Ronald:
I think very few people will disagree with me that this is absolute genius, isn’t it? But now let’s translate this. What does it actually… How useful is it for merchants? This is a WooCommerce podcast, so maybe give one or two, maybe more scenarios from small business to sort of a larger enterprise and how they can utilize this?

Phoebe:
Yeah. I mean, Jash can touch on the firsthand experience of why retailers like to use what3words, but I can definitely run through how it happens and how retailers can. Obviously, why we’re on this podcast is we do have a WordPress plugin, which is WooCommerce compatible. We’ve had that since 2017, so a longtime partner. And what that means is that any retailer, small enterprise, medium, anyone from let’s say, Village Maid Cheese, who’s an excellent cheese retailer in the West Country here in the UK, they can add a what3words field on their checkout page. It’s really easy to do. You just go into your settings and you are able to search for the what3words plugin, and then just enable it, which is super easy to do. You can then have that field. You can set up different settings on how you want it to look like. And then, once you have done that, the field will appear on your checkout.
It’s optional, so if someone doesn’t have an addressing problem or doesn’t know what what3words is, that’s totally okay. They don’t have to use it. It’s completely optional, and they can type in their what3words address if they do know and they do have addressing issues. That is then passed through to let’s say, an order management software that we work with. We work with Shiptheory who are carrier management as well. They are linked up to WooCommerce to accept what3words address, and then this is passed on to a carrier or a next-day delivery partner as well, Zedify for example, an excellent bike courier who are trying to do low emissions deliveries, which is great, and they use what3words as well. So, then, it gets all the way to Zedify and they’re able to do a really efficient routing using what3words address. That’s kind of the flow of how it would work, but it’s really, really easy to do just using that simple plugin for a retailer.

Jash:
Yeah. Also, just adding to Phoebe and sort of answering your question as to why does a retailer actually like to use what3words, I’ll actually take a step back to give you an example. Let’s say you live in the countryside. I think you mentioned that as well, you did, Ronald. So, if you live in the countryside, and let’s say a postcode usually covers a larger area of ground than it does in Central London. So, in the countryside, a postcode might cover let’s say 50 or a hundred meters, whereas in London, a postcode is a lot more accurate.
When someone places an order online, they put their postcode and they put the delivery address in, and the order doesn’t reach them on time or the order doesn’t reach them at all. They actually have trouble with the merchant. The merchant would usually allocate that order to a delivery company, but the end consumer has a poor experience with the merchant, not with the delivery company, and besides the obvious added costs, it’s just a poor experience with the brand altogether, which is why merchants actually quite enjoy using what3words. They give the consumer the option to enter a what3words address on the checkout page. Again, it’s completely an optional field. Consumers who need to use it can use it and do use it, and nobody is forced to use the what3words address on their checkout page. The fact that merchants have the ability to offer that option, we feel that it’s super enabling to them.

Phoebe:
I actually used to work for a small e-commerce brand and I have to say that the number of hours that I spent on the phone to delivery partners due to complaints coming from customers on parcels not turning up, which obviously is not the merchant’s fault at all, I won’t get those hours back. So, hopefully, we’re helping merchants with that reduction in calls to both customers and carriers as well.

Ronald:
Yeah. Well, you make a very good and very strong case actually. A WordPress plugin, just installing that, that will almost unlock that. Do you need to work with certain because or have most couriers now adopted this technology or at least aware of it?

Phoebe:
Yeah. We work with a number of different couriers across the world. So, from Aramex, which is one of the leading carriers in the Middle East and NAQEL Express and Starlinks over there, but then in India, you have DTDC, Blue Dart, and then in the UK, we work with DHL Parcel UK, every DPD, and we have many more kind of two-man deliveries as well and next-day delivery partners. So, we’re set up with a lot of different carriers across different markets and across different modes as well. So, if you’re looking for a bike courier or something like that, we also have partners in that space, and there’s new partners going live kind of every week, every month, every quarter. So, we always are announcing those partnerships, which is very exciting.

Ronald:
Very exciting, yes. Now, you could be quite sort of pessimistic and say, “Well, the technology has been there for so many years and why hasn’t really it caught on yet?” I think if you spot it, you’ll always see the three forward slashes, but I think for a majority of folks, it’s still not that familiar. So, talk a little bit about the growth and maybe the strategy, and then finally I might come back on that is what can the WordPress and the WooCommerce ecosystem do and help?

Phoebe:
Yeah. I think on that first point of the challenges we face, we’re creating a behavior change in society, right? We’re creating a new global standard for addressing. That is no mean feat. That will not be done overnight and we know that. But I think we’re already starting to see that behavior change, particularly in markets like the UK, where obviously, our HQ’s based here. It’s one of our most established markets, where we’re seeing these huge carriers go live accepting what3words addresses. I think that is an indication of the behavior change, but not just in e-commerce and logistics.
We work across so many different verticals, from events, so you see the likes of Arsenal Stadium adding what3words addresses to their website to help visitors get there. We’re working with Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes, these huge car brands who are I think integrating it into their navigation systems into cars which are kind of on the road, and you can use the what3words address in them. All the way to emergency services is obviously, one where a lot of people will have come across us as well. So, there are lots of different verticals that we’re working in and what3words is being used in, so I think we’re starting to see that behavior change, and as I say, the kind of growth in this space is really exciting, and then starting to see that replicate in other markets. So, India obviously being one where Jash works very heavily, we’re seeing that behavior change start to kick in as well, which is great. Sorry, on the second half of the question, if you wouldn’t mind repeating that.

Ronald:
I guess the question on seeing that growth and that trajectory is amazing. I mean, just the behavioral change, how do you even begin with that vision and be brave enough to say, “I’m going to change this addressing and postcode system in the world”? I don’t know, maybe you have an answer to that, but that just comes to mind that’s an enormous task, right?

Jash:
It is. It is an enormous task. I think for us, a huge credit goes to the fact that we have such a brilliant marketing team. I don’t don’t know if you’ve seen some of our marketing campaigns, but we do a lot in terms of marketing and this is across-

Ronald:
I have seen them actually. I think at some point, they’re all over London as well, and a lot of the big banner ads have the what3words in the corner.

Jash:
Yeah. Yeah. That’s a lot to do with the partners as well. When we have a partner who’s very happy with what they’re getting, with what they’re achieving with what3words, they’re very proud to talk about the feature. They’re very proud to talk about us, so thanks to them as well. So, anything from a brand to an emergency service to, as Phoebe mentioned, someone in the automotive space, whenever there’s a partner who also sort of sees the value and sort of wants to promote what3words as a feature or functionality either in their software, on their product, that’s what really helps us a lot. It is basically a continuous sort of flywheel. One thing we do face a lot is the chicken and egg problem as we need consumers to use what3words, but we also need to make sure that there’s enough businesses using it, and that’s something that we’re constantly juggling with. We are basically seeing a lot of success with that. We are in our 10th year and we are basically seeing the fruits of our labor now. So, it’s really an exciting time right now to see that come to fruition.

Ronald:
Yeah. Phoebe, just to come back on the part two, how can the WooCommerce and the WordPress ecosystem support you in this mission?

Phoebe:
Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously as I mentioned, we’ve had the plugin since 2017, so WooCommerce has definitely been a big part of us establishing ourselves in this space, and it’s about the more businesses that make what3words available to their customers, that’s how they can definitely help us. I think adding in that plugin, as I said, is a super simple setup process and we’ve designed it to be really simple for that purpose. We want a mom-and-pop retailer to be able to add it to their site and actually, as I mentioned at the beginning, we have a whole team who are working specifically with helping these retailers get set up.
So, whether it’s SME or enterprise, we have someone in our team who’ll be able to guide through the process. So, I think it’s probably a joint partnership where we’re really keen for more and more people to be able to accept what3words addresses on their checkout page and offer it to their customers as a solution, but we’re also there to help them as well and guide them through the process, talk about it to their customers, and guide them as I say through that. Yeah.

Jash:
what3words for retailers, when they add this to the checkout page, we don’t charge anything to businesses to add a what3words field on that checkout page. Right? So, when someone installs the WooCommerce plugin, there is no charge. What3words is offered for free to businesses, and before you ask why, I already have the answer ready to go. We like people to think of what3words as an additional address. Today, nobody charges you to accept an address. No one’s charging you to accept a postcode. No one’s charging you to accept a landmark. Why should we charge you to accept what3words address? That’s sort of the ethos behind why we don’t charge businesses to accept a what3words address. We make our money the conventional way, how conventional geocoding company makes the money, which is we make our money through carriers. So, whenever carriers receive the what3words address, and they convert the what3words address into coordinates for deliveries, that’s sort of our commercial model, so that’s why we don’t charge the businesses and we sort of never need to.

Ronald:
That was actually one of my questions, how do you monetize it? Because with a marketing department and yourselves and all these partnerships, it must be quite a costly operation. So, if I’m repeat what you’re saying, if a carrier company translates to what3words into coordinate or into some, they sort of pay per use, per transfer, per-

Jash:
Per conversion, right. It depends. These are usually enterprise contracts, but yes, and we obviously have simple business plans on the website as well. But to summarize, yes, it’s sort of depending on the package that a carrier company or anyone sort of purchases. It’s pay per conversion. Generally, up to a hundred conversions a month is free, and then after that, we have paid tiers depending on how many conversions per month someone sort of estimates. There’s a fee for it. Compared to any other conventional geocoding engines, it is a lot cheaper simply because we don’t have dependencies on street addresses. We don’t have a lot of other dependencies. There’s only one thing that our technology does. It converts what3words to coordinates and coordinates to what3words. It’s very straightforward.

Ronald:
To Phoebe’s point earlier from what you shared working for an e-commerce, how much time it’s saved to contact sales, you could almost or you would like to think that carrier companies appreciate that, that they don’t have these issues with looking for addresses and dealing with complaints. So, it’s almost an instant saving even by paying for this service.

Phoebe:
Yeah. I mean, efficiencies and positives for both ends of the chain. With a carrier, particularly if you’re a two-man delivery service, delivering large goods, having a more efficient point B as your delivery point means that you’re not potentially having to do U-turns down a residential street, which is not great. You’re not having to try and find exactly where an entrance is. So, we can definitely increase efficiencies for the carriers there, and then obviously for the merchant, you’re reducing that point for the customer.

Ronald:
And leaving the parcel in a safe space and all those other scenarios again. Jash?

Jash:
Yeah. I think it’s also time-sensitive. A lot of industries, for example, for restaurants as well, food delivery companies, when they accept a what3words address from consumers, when someone’s using it in a time sensitive manner, we don’t necessarily need to focus on the fact that there’s a missed delivery, but nobody wants their food 40 minutes late when it’s already cold. So, that’s another place where we basically see a lot of love for what3words is when [inaudible 00:24:23] can specify exact delivery locations when they’re ordering their food.

Ronald:
So, if I sit on the beach and I really don’t want to leave to see the sunset or whatever, ordering a pizza with a food place that accepts what3words?

Jash:
Well, yeah, that would obviously depend on the restaurant and how comfortable delivery driver is sort of pulling up to the beach, but that does totally work. So, we do see a lot of businesses using what3words to order food in the park, so I do definitely think that it’s useful, as long as the delivery driver doesn’t mind getting his feet a bit sandy.

Ronald:
Yeah. And the person ordering doesn’t move a couple of meters because then that’s very confusing again, isn’t it?

Jash:
Yeah.

Ronald:
Usually, being given a pizza that you didn’t order. Nice. Developers and agencies hopefully listening to this and thinking that’s great, but what sort of conversation can I have with my client or the merchant or the SMBs and get them to adopt this? Because so far, it all seems to be a win-win scenario. What sort of things can they say, do, and do you have maybe additional material?

Phoebe:
Yeah. We’ve definitely got loads of additional material. When people ask for resources on how to talk about what3words, that’s definitely something that we have endless supplies of. We do this day in, day out. We talk about what3words and the benefits of it, so we’re always happy to help share resources on that. We have an entire comms hub as well, which is a bit more self-serve. Any SMBs or agencies can definitely delve into that to look into how they can talk about what3words. We also have a product selector on our website as well, which allows people to search for different softwares and different partnerships that we have across this space. Whether it’s an ecom platform and order management, a carrier, route optimization, we have those all listed on our website, so they can definitely delve into that to see all the different mutual partners that we might have.
In terms of what they can do and start getting started, we’re happy to be contacted directly to help with them with those resources and guide them through talking about what3words to their clients. You say it’s a win-win. It is a win-win. Retailers are really gaining from using this fun and cool technology that actually has a benefit to their customers. There are some crazy stats that 70% of the UK population have had their deliveries lost or go to the wrong address, so we definitely genuinely have an impact on this issue that there is and that we think that we kind of just, “Oh, well, my parcel has a potential chance of not turning up.” We can actually say, “Well, actually we can have an impact on that stat. We can help reduce that.” So, when you say it’s a win-win, it’s because it is.

Ronald:
Yeah. Is there any additional verification of let’s say a delivery driver having been in that square, but also if somebody orders from the park or the beach that they actually have to be there in order to use those three words, just an extra layer of security and assurance that a parcel has actually been delivered there, for example?

Phoebe:
Sort of proof of delivery in that sense?

Ronald:
I guess so, yeah, but also on the other side, if you order your pizza in the park that you actually have to be in what3words, in that square.

Phoebe:
Yeah. Well, I think first of all, with our… It’s built into our plugin, but also on all of our integrations that we work on, we have something called AutoSuggest, which is kind of like Google’s Did You Mean. So, when you start typing the third word of the three word address, it starts suggesting what addresses that it thinks you might mean, and it has the nearest place listed with it as well. So, that means that it’s kind of a error detection stage right at that first stage of input, and that can act as a kind of making sure that the customer doesn’t make a mistake, doesn’t input the wrong address, and is truly where that person is based or would like it to go.
And then, at the carrier end, we do often build in radiuses, so we have a validation to check that it’s not so far away from the street address that they might’ve inputted because this is where I think a lot of people aren’t aware is that we always recommend using a what3words address alongside a street address for that sort of physical validation that you’ve arrived where you want to be going. And I think the way to think of what3words here, it is just like a street address, but it’s almost like a hyper accurate postcode for deliveries. So, in terms of validation, you’re getting the street address and the what3words, so you’re getting a really efficient endpoint, but you’re also making sure you have arrived where the customer wants you to.

Ronald:
Yeah. Perfect.

Jash:
Even from a development perspective, Ronald, just to add to that is what3words, the technology for the AutoSuggest is very, very simple. It’s just a few lines of code, a few lines of JavaScript to just input on a checkout page. So, every once in a while, we do basically see developers or agencies build their own version of the plugin. Not too long ago, we basically had someone in Germany build a what3words plugin for Shopware, and then we sort of found them, tested it out, and it was just so popular. So, there are enthusiasts out there, there are agencies out there, there are developers out there who can just take what we’ve designed and sort of just build it to suit their specific needs also. But the reason why we obviously have the WooCommerce plugin is just the accessibility. It’s just so easy for small businesses to just literally just go to their settings panel, go to the app store, and install it, so anyone can sort of do it by themselves as well.

Ronald:
Yeah. I mean, you’ve answered that you can do it yourself, but do you have integrations with other shipping plugins? For example, you have ShipStation and via Sendcloud. Do they also already have that what3words integration that you’re aware of?

Phoebe:
Not yet, but it’s definitely something that we’re working on. We’re building out this ecosystem every day. We’re learning more about it. The e-commerce platforms and the carriers was kind of the kickoff point for us over the last few years after entering the e-commerce logistics space, and we’re now kind of solving the messy middle. I should say, making sure that that what3words information is making it all the way through that journey. So, as I mentioned earlier, partnerships with Shiptheory, Metapack, all of those kind of order management, carrier management, shipping tools, that’s what we’re now working on now as we move forward.

Jash:
I also think the momentum we’ve built is sort of global, right? So, in some markets, it sort of surprises us as well when we see this is that we have so many carriers using what3words in Saudi, which we didn’t expect that sort of uptick so quickly. And similarly, in India, we have so many more carrier management or order management softwares using what3words, so we have e-ship, ClickPost, we have aggregators like Shiprocket. These are sort of the market leaders in India who have adopted what3words. So, this sort of always surprised us when we see adoption so much quicker in other markets because they sort of look to the UK. They see the current progress that we’re making over there. And then, there’s learning, and then they’re sort of picking it up faster where you’re trying to get that edge, get there quicker than others can.

Ronald:
Yeah. So, UK is then market leading in terms of the adoption of what3words, and what other countries do you see spearing ahead, maybe, even to a point where they set the example?

Jash:
In terms of the UK, yes, the UK is our largest market. UK is where what3words was born, and that’s where what3words have got its fame through all of the different verticals. There’s the emergency services, infrastructure, e-commerce, logistics, automotive, all of those. And then, we try to replicate that success in many other markets as well, right? Because I work in India, I can speak very confidently about India. I think India is the fastest growing market for what3words outside of the UK. We are also very active in the Middle East. Saudi has been a very, very good market for us as well. Vietnam as well, Japan, Korea, all of these have been really, really good market for what3words. In fact, our teams have expanded so much, we now recently have opened up an office in Vietnam as well where we’re seeing amazing adoption of what3words.

Ronald:
Wow. So, how big is the company and team then? I had no idea you have branches outside of UK.

Phoebe:
Yeah. I think we’re around 150 as a team now, so definitely not huge, which is why we focus on very specific markets where we see momentum. I think, as Jash said, mentioned a lot of those, so Japan, India, Korea, Vietnam, Middle East, but then kind closer to home, looking at Germany and then also North America as well, as where we’re sort of dipping our toe into North America as well and seeing great uptake already, particularly in the emergency services and automotive space. So, yeah, really exciting times. As I say, only a team of 150, so on the bigger size, but definitely still having to be quite targeted and focused, and I think that’s where working with companies like WooCommerce and having plugins available to make it as self-serve as possible for people, and also just like the WooCommerce community has been particularly valuable for our developers over the years to help us grow our plugin and make sure it’s as self-serve and the best user experience for the users. That’s definitely been a great help over the years.

Ronald:
Yeah.

Jash:
Just adding, again, a huge shout-out to the WooCommerce community because we sort of work with so many other e-commerce platforms where information isn’t as freely available, but when it comes to WooCommerce, the community is so large and so helpful. As you know, there’s forums. There’s tutorials. People are generally very approachable, very helpful, so that has been hugely helpful to our product managers, to our developers, and that sort of already speaks eons for WooCommerce as a brand, I’d say.

Ronald:
That’s incredible. Yeah. That’s great to hear, and of course I’m a little proud of that as well. I think we have to wrap it up a little bit, but first I would like to hear from you where you see what3words in… Should we give it three years? Let’s just paint a picture of where it should be. Let’s see if we can hit that.

Phoebe:
Obviously, to be recognized as a global standard of addressing, Ronald.

Ronald:
what3words first, yeah.

Phoebe:
Exactly. I mean, as we say, for us, the e-commerce and logistics space is the most exciting for us. It’s one that we entered much later than a lot of the other verticals, and it’s where we’ve seen some of the most growth. For me, I’m very interested to see where we go in this vertical, and in three years time, I think we’re just going to see even further adoption across all areas of the e-commerce. So, looking at B2B, looking at enterprise partners, and also the SMBs as well. I think that’s going to be where it’s really, really exciting with all the plugins and the accessible ways that we can be integrated into checkout pages. I think we’re going to see the work that we’ve put into those over the last few years really kind of take off.

Ronald:
Yeah. Wow. I have huge admiration for the original founders to say, “Hey, we need something,” to have the vision and the drive all the way through. I don’t think I’ve ever discussed an idea like this, that I’ve actually come this far already and there’s this huge momentum. So, I really hope that in three years time, it will be the absolute number one, what3words first. And then, to validate it with your traditional address, maybe it takes a few more years, but you definitely have the momentum with you.

Phoebe:
Yeah. I mean, we predict what we aim for in our partners is 3% to 15% utilization, and that’s what we expect to see because that’s what we look for. So, yeah, we already see that in a lot of our partners, and the majority of our partners, that’s what we expect to see, so we can continue to see that utilization, but across more and more partners.

Ronald:
Yeah. Great. Okay. Assuming I’m a listener, developer, agency, something, how can they reach out? What’s the best and easiest way to carry on this conversation?

Jash:
Well, the easiest way is to sort of just go to the what3words developer site. We have tons of assets over there. If you’re an agency, if you’re a developer, if you already use a plugin, if you’re a merchant, and you just want to talk about what3words, everything is on there. Everything from communication toolkits to sort of dev guides to just the plugin itself, everything is on our developer side, so very easy to find, very accessible. If you do want to get in touch with us, you can either contact us there, or Phoebe and I are both very active on LinkedIn. If you just need anything, can drop us a message as well.

Ronald:
Incredible. Well, thank you both very much for your time and the insights. See you soon.

Jash:
Yeah, thanks so much, Ronald.

Phoebe:
Thanks so much, Ronald.