By Jeff Domansky, Dec 2, 2020
Apparently, porch pirates are alive and well, preying on online shoppers and stealing as many as 17 million packages from consumer porches and verandas since the start of the pandemic in March, according to new research from insuranceQuotes.com.
In the fourth of its annual “Porch Pirates” reports, the company identified key trends during the age of the COVID-19 pandemic from an Oct 27-Nov 1 survey of 1007 US consumers:
- 7% of Americans have had a package stolen since March 2020
- 18% of city residents, and 16% of non-metro residents, say they have had a delivered package stolen from their porch or doorstep in their lifetime
- 14% say that all or most of their grocery shopping is now done via online delivery
- 36% say since March, they have shifted away from in-person shopping in favor of online purchasing.
“As online shopping and delivery increases, so does the risk of porch pirates—which is not only being compounded by a once-in-a-100-years pandemic spurring online ordering, but also now, holiday shopping. This holiday season, online shoppers need to have a safe and secure delivery plan,” said Michael Giusti, an analyst at insuranceQuotes.com and author of the report.
Protect your sales and customer deliveries
Giusti offers retailers and online sellers valuable advice on how to protect their sales and their customers. “Unfortunately, Porch Piracy is a fact of life, as proven by our Porch Pirates in the Age of Covid-19 Report, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use some best practices to limit your danger. When it comes to online sellers, it really comes down to three P’s — policies, principles, and practices,” he says.
Policies
Make sure in your terms of service you make clear how your products will be delivered, whether by employees, commercial carrier, or some other means. Ensure you spell out liability for when a package is successfully delivered to the customer, specifically that it transfers to that customer, and you are no longer legally responsible for it. “That’s just a starting point. Nobody wants to have an angry customer complaining about how you didn’t do enough when they went through a traumatic theft,” Giusti says.
Principles
Even if the package theft isn’t the seller’s fault, and the seller isn’t likely liable for it once it is successfully delivered, it may be worthwhile to consider the goodwill you will earn from customers if you voluntarily replace it. He says it may cost you in the short run, but if you can earn a lifetime customer, and if you are lucky, a glowing social media response, then absorbing the cost of a single delivery may be worthwhile in the end.
Practices
“But to prevent having to eat the cost of a package, it might help to develop a few sound best practices,” he adds.
Once you hand the package off for delivery, make sure you’re tracking it from that point on. Use reputable carriers, and opt for the more costly verification services, such as signature verification if the package is especially high value. Allow your customer to communicate with the carrier where they prefer to have the package delivered, whether that is behind a planter, at a side door, or somewhere else completely.
“Make sure that if a package does get stolen, make it clear how the customer can contact you to let you know something went wrong. Even if you don’t take the high road and replace it, knowing that something went wrong may help you avoid future problems,” Giusti advises.
Porch piracy remains another e-commerce fraud challenge for both sellers and online shoppers.
“Fortunately for consumers, there are effective ways to protect themselves and their packages from porch pirates – from order tracking to installing a security system or arranging for a pickup location. There are even some cities volunteering their local police departments as a package pickup point,” says Giusti. “In the short term, the porch pirates problem is likely to get worse before it gets better. But it will get better.”
The full insuranceQuotes.com 2020 Porch Pirates in the Age of COVID-19 Report includes in-depth data and analysis on porch pirates and online delivery trends, along with tips for consumers to protect their packages and steps to take after falling victim to package theft and is available here.
LET’S CONNECT