If you haven't returned those unwanted Christmas presents yet, it may be too late. The holiday returns deadline has already been met in most stores. Depending on the store's policies, if you have the label and receipt, you may still be able to get store credit, but don't expect it.
Many retailers are taking stronger actions due to growing returns fraud.
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According to a recent report from the National Retail Federation and Appriss, nearly 14% of all refunds were fraudulent last year – totaling $101 billion in losses.
Common scams include stolen items being returned to the store for a credit or refund or fake online purchase confirmations being used to facilitate in-store returns.
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Retailers are continuing to adapt to new types of return fraud, and they are boosting security and theft protection measures, like locking items up.
Mark Mathews is the executive director of research at the NRF.
“With the advances in technology and AI -- the ability to detect when something looks a little bit off in terms of an online purchase … [is] increasing ways that retailers - and technology firms that are partnering with retailers - are able to identify fraudulent transactions.”
We’ve seen organized retail crime thefts in the news, gangs stealing products -- that is also growing as a problem across the retail industry and is leading to tightened security in stores.
The NRF notes returning items purchased online has financial and environmental impacts.
When you ship an item back it must be unboxed at a return facility, checked, and shipped back to the store. In many cases the items aren’t salvageable and end up being thrown away. That’s a major problem for retailers and the costs are passed onto consumers.
To reduce the impact of online returns, more retailers are providing additional information about the products they are selling. Do a thorough check of the sizes, dimensions, and materials, before making that purchase to reduce the chances you will need to return it.
