Check Return Policies on Holiday Gifts – Both buyers and receivers should be aware at this gift-giving season that the days that consumers had 30 days to get their money back are long gone. Return policies have become more restrictive as retailers try to curb abuse by serial returners and not get stuck with outdated merchandise. Retailers now often check the names of those returning items against a blacklist of serial returners. The National Retail Federation estimates that between 4% and 6% of holiday gifts are returned each year. Loss prevention executives expect almost 9% of those holiday returns will be fraudulent this year. Still, 35% of retailers surveyed said their holiday return policies are more lenient than their regular practice. Best Buy, for example, allows until Jan. 31 to return all items – but there is a 15% restocking fee on certain opened items – a policy also shared by Sears. Retailers are supposed to disclose their return policies to shoppers in advance.
New Technology Battles Shoplifters – During the holiday chaos it’s often difficult for overworked clerks to keep an eye on all shoppers, and merchandise is so enticingly displayed. The result is that for those more into taking than giving, this is a busy time of year. Retailers in North America lost $40.5 billion to various types of theft last year – it’s not a trivial crime. The business world refers to it as “shrinkage.” ADT is the largest provider of electronic security services, working with over six million commercial, government and residential customers in North America. The range of crimes is much more than simple shoplifting: it includes container theft, credit and give card fraud, tampering with PIN machines, organized violent professional theft rings. Store managers and security experts are exploring many technologies to stem the flow of merchandise leaving stores unaccounted for – from advanced surveillance cameras to the security tags attached to products. Some of the latter now use radio frequency ID, and most security tags are now attached during manufacture rather than later. 620 million hard tags were shipped by ADT last year.
