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Thanksgiving and Black Friday are here again, kicking off a bonanza of online shopping. In the United States, a whopping 22 billion packages are shipped every year, a large portion of them now around the holiday season.
So for once, we’re going to talk about something that happens offline (gasp!): The insane number of packages that are stolen each year, and what retailers are doing to mitigate this enormous problem.
Here be pirates, porch pirates
Shipped packages get stolen at an alarmingly high rate, and, while hailed as mostly an American phenomenon, so-called porch pirates are a big problem (people stealing packages from outside a residence or workplace).
We looked at some numbers around package theft in the United States and it’s honestly worse than we thought:
- Over the past year, up to 58 million Americans have been victims of package theft.
- Those stolen packages were worth around $12 billion USD.
- Approximately 41% of Americans have experienced package theft at least once, with 25% reporting a theft within the past year.
- Apartment residents experience package theft at double the rate of those living in single-family homes.
- Three in five package thefts happen in November and December. That’s 60% in just two months.
- Certain states report higher rates of package theft. Kentucky, North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Alaska are at the top of the list.
- Almost 90% of Americans worry to some degree about holiday package theft, with over a quarter being “very” or “extremely” concerned.
If you want to dig into more numbers around package theft and porch piracy, check out these reports from Security.org, ValuePenguin, and Aftership, which is where we got these numbers.
It is the season for stolen packages
Google searches can be very revealing. We’re going to leave you with some Google Trends data related to stolen packages, in this case people searching for “stolen package” in the United States since 2004:
See those spikes? Each one is just after Black Friday, early December, when people are supposed to get their deliveries. You’ll find similar patterns for searches such as “package missing”, etc.
It makes sense that as the number of deliveries increases, so do thefts, but it’s kind of depressing regardless. As the saying goes, this is why we can’t have nice things.
It’s also interesting to see how Black Friday as a phenomenon has grown over time.
And of course, there are the other “siblings” to Black Friday, like Black Week and Cyber Monday. All designed to extend the shopping window (literally and metaphorically).
What are online retailers doing to counter this?
Naturally, packages not reaching their intended target is bad for business and a horrible user experience from a consumer perspective.
It makes sense to put a lot of effort into countering the porch piracy issue and making shoppers feel safe. If people lose trust, they will likely stop shopping online, or pick another store to order from.
Some common approaches by online retailers include:
- Using packaging that’s hard to tamper with.
- Avoiding branding that might look attractive to thieves.
- Offering customers delivery options such as scheduled deliveries, in-store pickups, and delivery to secure lockers.
- Collaborations with delivery services to provide real-time tracking and notifications, so customers know when packages arrive.
- Insurance options or guarantees to replace or refund stolen packages.
Above all, retailers need to make sure they are easy to reach and quick to resolve any issues. That will go a long way.
Part of the responsibility goes to the consumer as well, of course, but retailers need to empower them as much as possible.
Happy holiday shopping, everyone!
We love e-commerce businesses and help quite a few with content moderation. Sadly we can’t help making sure packages get delivered safely.
So, fellow online shoppers, be safe out there, and good luck!
Ahem… tap, tap… is this thing on? 🎙️
We’re Besedo and we provide content moderation tools and services to companies all over the world. Often behind the scenes.
Want to learn more? Check out our homepage and use cases.
And above all, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions or want a demo.
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