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As consumers order more products online for delivery, more packages are being reported stolen.
According to the 2020 Package Theft Statistics Report from C&R Research, almost six in 10 (59%) surveyed online consumers receive some type of package on a weekly basis, which is up 10 percentage points from the 2019 edition of the survey. Meanwhile, the number of respondents who reported having a package stolen rose 19% from 36% in 2019 to 43% in 2020.
Of the 43% who have had a package stolen, almost two-thirds (64%) say they’ve been a victim of package theft more than once. The average value of the stolen package was $136, with 81% of respondents who had a package stolen saying they received a refund on the stolen item(s).
About one-third (32%) of respondents say delivery companies aren’t doing enough to prevent package theft, with almost four in 10 (39%) staying home to meet the delivery driver when they’re expecting a package and 50% having purchased a doorbell camera or other type of security device to prevent package theft.
More than eight in 10 (84%) respondents report ordering more items online since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, and almost three in 10 (29%) had a package stolen during the pandemic, including 22% who had a package stolen for the first time during the pandemic.
Fifty-five percent of respondents were planning to purchase more items online during the 2020 holiday season compared to 2019, with 31% planning to purchase about the same number of items online and 14% planning to purchase fewer items. However, 55% were victims of package theft during the 2019 holiday season, while 52% were worried about package theft during the 2020 holiday season and 48% planned to avoid buying expensive items online.
In addition, 24% of respondents planned to use in-store pickup of online purchases during the 2020 holiday season and 13% planned to send packages to a delivery center.
C&R Research surveyed 2,000 consumers who have shopped online at least once within the last 12 months.
