Sina Technology Zheng Junfa is from Silicon Valley in the United States.
Lose 1.7 million parcels a day
Since the installation of Amazon.Com IncSmart doorbell Ring, life is getting less and less sense of security. Because Ring sends several community-related tweets every day to remind me of new security cases in the North San Jose area of Silicon Valley: car smashing, burglary, and so on. And the most common push is the case of stolen parcels. Almost every day, nearby residents upload similar videos in the Ring community: strangers wearing masks sneak up to their doors, pick up parcels or mail and run away. Even if the burglar is filmed on surveillance video, there is nothing the householders can do.
In fact, North San Jose is not a poor area of Silicon Valley, where there are few violent crimes and car window thefts are far less than those in downtown San Francisco. The San Francisco Bay area is not an area of poor security in the United States. However, the problem of stolen parcels has almost become the norm that San Francisco Bay area residents have to accept as part of their online shopping experience. There is no point in calling the police. The police will only ask you to fill out a report form. In small cases like stealing parcels, they don't even have the energy to go to the police to check.
The economic shutdown and public control brought about by the COVID-19 epidemic have plunged American brick-and-mortar retail stores into a bitter winter, and a large number of physical retail stores have fallen into bankruptcy. At the same time, it has also ushered in a good opportunity for American online sales to accelerate growth. The U.S. Department of Commerce has not released official statistics for 2020. But according to Digital Commence 360, a market research firm, online shopping sales in the United States may soar 40.3% year-on-year to $839 billion in 2020, accounting for 21% of physical retail. For a simple comparison, China's online retail sales totaled 11.76 trillion yuan in 2020, while online retail sales of physical goods totaled 9.76 trillion yuan ($1.51 trillion), an increase of 14.8 percent over the same period last year, accounting for nearly 1/4 of total retail sales, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.
But perhaps the biggest problem affecting the US e-commerce experience today is not slow logistics or after-sale, but the increasingly rampant problem of package theft. A survey released by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a private university in New York State, estimated that 1.7 million parcels were stolen, lost or misdelivered every day in the United States in 2019, with direct financial losses and labor costs exceeding $25 million. New York City alone loses 90, 000 parcels a day (the city sends a total of 1.5 million parcels a day), an increase of 20 per cent from four years ago. The conclusion of the survey is even more discouraging. "the thieves who stole the packages are becoming more and more unscrupulous and stealing more and more packages."
Several similar investigations have confirmed how serious the problem of parcel theft is in the United States. One in three American online shoppers has lost a parcel, according to a survey by ClearR Research, a market research firm. Even more heartbreaking for the e-commerce industry, as many as 42% of respondents said they were reluctant to buy expensive goods online for fear of losing parcels. This means that the problem of package theft has not only caused direct economic losses to e-commerce platforms, but also cost them potentially more revenue and profit space.
California is hardest hit by stolen parcels.
Why are so many parcels stolen in the United States? In addition to the extra valuables required to be signed, couriers leave the vast majority of parcels purchased online in the United States directly at the door and take a photo to prove that they have arrived and left. Consumers will then receive the relevant notification. But whether the package can be received or not is another matter, because many thieves have their eyes fixed on the parcels left at the door. Most of the people who steal parcels are passing by and shoplifting, but there are also daring thieves who specialize in following express cars, delivering them all the way in front and stealing all the way behind.
Where are parcels most likely to be stolen in the United States? The problem of package theft usually occurs in urban areas, with 34 per cent of city residents saying they had lost their parcels in 2018, according to a survey released last year by Wakefield Research, a market research company. Only 20% and 13% of respondents in suburban and rural areas lost parcels. It is also easy to understand that the suburbs and rural areas are sparsely populated, the residents are scattered, the movement of people is relatively simple, and few people will wander on the road.
When broken down into regions, the San Francisco Bay area where Silicon Valley is located is "honored" to have the most serious package theft problem in the United States. ranking second to sixth are several metropolitan areas: salt Lake City, Utah, Portland, Oregon, Baltimore, Seattle and Chicago. Embarrassingly, California has three regions, the San Francisco Bay area, the Los Angeles area and the Sacramento area, in the top 10 of the list of lost parcels in the United States.
So why is the problem of package theft so rampant in California? On the one hand, it may be because most California residents live in Townhouse villas or separate houses, and parcels are usually left directly at the door and can be seen on the road, making it easier for passers-by to steal them. On the other hand, because California prisons are overcrowded, California voted to pass Prop 47 in 2014, which treats theft of property under $950 as a misdemeanor, and the police have less energy to deal with small cases such as package theft. Thieves who smash cars and steal parcels are rarely caught, let alone fearless.
Surprisingly, New York, the most densely populated metropolis in the United States, did not make the top 10 on the list of lost parcels. According to Jessie, a New Yorker who has lived in Manhattan for more than a decade, most apartments in Manhattan have concierges to sign for and take care of parcels, which are less likely to be stolen. And for those ordinary apartments without a concierge, the delivery man will not leave the package directly at the door like the Bay area because of security concerns, and will post a note for the signer to go to the network to pick it up. Of course, the problem of lost parcels in New York City is still serious, but overall, overcrowded Manhattan is safer than Silicon Valley.
In fact, the thieves do not know what package they are stealing, they just take away everything they can, and even have the feeling of "opening a blind box". The founder and CEO of Ami, the largest Chinese e-commerce platform in the United States, introduced Sina Technology, and their platform also often encountered consumers reporting the loss of parcels. "the thieves basically stole everything they saw, and they didn't just stare at our parcels." According to the latest data, Yami Network makes nearly 100 parcels lost every week, but their overall package loss rate is only about half a percentage point.
The seller has no choice but to bear the loss
So, what should I do if the package is stolen? According to the Wakefield Research survey, when most Americans find that their parcels are stolen, their first thought is not to call the police, but to contact the platform or seller immediately. In most cases, American consumers do not need to worry about losses because there are sellers to bear the losses. Amazon.Com Inc and big sellers usually give customers a refund or refund. Ami's tour said that after users report the loss of the package, they will choose to refund first, and then advise users to call the police, because retaining the user is more important than the loss of the package.
The head of operations for the brand Synco, which sells wireless microphones for cameras on the Amazon.Com Inc platform, told Sina Technology that when they encounter consumers reporting the loss of parcels, they usually directly refund them first, and then communicate with Amazon.Com Inc platform. "We are more worried about buyers giving us bad reviews because they can't get the goods than a refund of tens or hundreds of dollars. If they give a bad review orComplaintsOur sellers will lose even more. To sell goods in Amazon.Com Inc, it is too important to have a good evaluation of word-of-mouth. " Synco currently sells more than 20 microphone products on Amazon.Com Inc's Prime platform, with user reviews above four stars.
The goods were sold through Amazon.Com Inc Prime, and the logistics was sent to the door, but it was taken away by thieves. Why did the seller bear the loss? The head of Synco operations said that according to the regulations of Amazon.Com Inc platform, consumers whose parcels were stolen should provide proof of their own order to claim compensation from Amazon.Com Inc, but the seller could not do anything about it. If consumers are too lazy to follow these processes, sellers can only bear losses silently, after all, they have to continue to sell on the Amazon.Com Inc platform.
Another seller of electronic accessories on the eBay platform told Sina Technology that when big sellers buy UPS or Fedex logistics services, they usually choose express loss insurance based on the value of the goods. But they will also pay compensation to customers first, and then file claims with logistics companies. "whether you can make up for the loss or not is one thing. Sellers are all very pussy and care more about user evaluation."
But is it the seller who ends up paying for the stolen package? Lori Torres, founder of Parcel Pending, an American startup, does not think so. "will merchants eventually transfer these extra costs to commodity prices, or will consumers bear the losses for package thieves?" Amazon.Com Inc allocates $9 billion a year for lost parcels and return reparations. Who will these costs eventually be transferred to? " The startup provides a third-party parcel pick-up network service (currently more than 4000 pick-up points), providing a secure package pickup service for consumers shopping on e-commerce sites.
Spoof thieves to become Internet celebrities
Even if there is an e-commerce platform, the serious problem of package theft has cast a shadow on American consumers, prompting the e-commerce platform to try its best to maintain the security of the package. It seems that consumers and e-commerce platforms have reached a consensus that they do not have much hope for the US police to improve law and order. After all, in the big urban areas of the United States, it is not easy for the police to reduce vicious crimes, and it is difficult to have the police force and energy to pay attention to theft. Package thefts are usually simply classified as theft cases (Larceny), rather than being counted specifically.
From the consumer's point of view, it seems unprofessional to sign for parcels at the company's address, and some companies have explicitly asked their employees not to deliver online shopping to the company. However, if you are unable to sign at home during the day and are worried about package theft, the most effective anti-theft measure is to register for self-service in advance in UPS, FedEX, USPS and other express logistics networks, requiring logistics couriers to keep parcels waiting for self-pick-up. According to data released by UPS, their user-access service, MyChoice, now has 63 million users. USPS's user-access service also has 21 million users.
As the largest e-commerce giant in the United States, Amazon.Com Inc's main way to deal with package theft is to increase the number of online parcel pick-up stores. Today, Amazon.Com Inc has set up parcel pick-up cabinets (Hub Locker) in more than 900 American cities. When the package arrives at the pick-up cabinet, the consumer will be notified and receive a bar code to open the cabinet for self-collection. In addition, Amazon.Com Inc also worked with some brick-and-mortar retailers, such as GNC, to let consumers pick up Amazon.Com Inc parcels at these stores near their homes.
In addition, Amazon.Com Inc also launched the Amazon Key service before. Through the compatible Amazon.Com Inc camera and smart door lock, the owner can open the door and let the courier put the package in the house or garage through remote control and video surveillance. But it is clear that the service cannot be trusted by ordinary users, with only 4 per cent of respondents willing to let unfamiliar couriers into their homes, according to a survey by Clearr Reserch last year.
For package thieves, Silicon Valley IT men also have their own solutions. Apple Inc who lives in San FranciscoEngineer Mark Rober decided to solve the problem on his own because the package had been stolen many times. The IT man made a prank "bomb" disguised as a package and put a mobile phone inside to locate and shoot videos, plus glitter powder as explosives. When the thief took away the fake package left in front of Rob's house, Robert tracked the thief's whereabouts in real time through his mobile phone and remotely photographed the thief through the mobile phone camera inside the fake package.
When the thief opened the package, Rob detonated the bomb remotely. The scattered glitter and the sound of alarm made the young thief sit on the ground in horror. Obviously, this is just a prank and does not really solve the problem of lost parcels. But Rob became an Internet celebrity and was interviewed by a well-known American host, Jimmy Kimmel. Later, Rob simply quit Apple Inc's job and became a full-time video blogger. Over the past two years, Rob has been constantly improving his prank "package" to make more package thieves learn a lesson. Recently, a video of a parody of a package thief has been viewed more than 28 million times in a month.
However, the ultimate solution to the problem of stolen parcels may depend on law enforcement. Some Republican-dominated conservative states are enacting laws to increase penalties for parcel theft. Texas passed a new law on mail parcel theft in 2019, HB 37, which stipulates that stealing 10 parcels is a felony with a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of up to $10, 000. South Carolina has also enacted a new stolen parcels Act (Defense Against Porch Pirates Act), which treats parcel theft as a felony. However, in California, where prisons are overcrowded, it is unrealistic to expect the government and police to crack down on petty theft. Perhaps bearing the loss of stolen parcels is also an additional cost for e-commerce companies to operate in California.