Dive Summary:
- Big name retailers like Best Buy, J.C. Penney, Victoria's Secret, Home Depot and Nike—hoping to pinpoint chronic returners and thieves who steal items to return for store credit later—are outsourcing return information to third-party companies that create "return profiles" of customers.
- Consumer advocates are crying foul, saying that the practice, which many shoppers aren't even aware of, creates transparency issues regarding the collection of consumer information; a privacy lawsuit against Best Buy has already been tossed out.
- Over $264 billion worth of merchandise is returned each year, accounting for almost 9% of total sales.
From the article:
... One company that offers return tracking services, The Retail Equation (TRE) in Irvine, Calif., says it doesn’t share information in the profiles it creates with outside parties or with other stores.
For example, if TRE logs and analyzes returns from a Victoria’s Secret customer, TRE only reports back to Victoria’s Secret about the return activity. It does not then also share that information with J.C. Penney or other retailers that use TRE.
Even so, consumer advocates don’t like it. ...
