It is learned that in recent years, "store robberies" have emerged one after another across the United States, and the robbers have sold the stolen goods online to make huge profits. According to CNBC, in the past year, Louis Vuitton and other stores in San Francisco's Union Square and nearby Nordstrom have experienced a number of large-scale robberies, with the number of robbers reaching more than 80 people.

Investigations have shown that these incidents are organized crimes and are increasing. Stolen goods are sold at lower prices through e-commerce websites, causing losses to offline retail stores and affecting the competitive environment of the online market, becoming a common problem for offline retailers and e-commerce platforms.

  Robbers are too rampant, offline retail giants can't defend themselves

A survey by the U.S. government's Homeland Security Investigations showed that a total of $68.9 billion worth of products were stolen in the United States in 2019. In 2020, organized crime increased, and the number of arrests and prosecutions in this area, as well as the value of confiscated stolen goods, increased. Some large chain stores even had to close stores or limit business hours.

Glenn, a loss prevention worker who has worked at Home Depot for four years, said losses from organized retail crime have grown at a double-digit rate since he joined Home Depot four years ago.

Even if retailers like Home Depot and Lululemon put special labels on merchandise, they do little to prevent theft, especially in the context of organized retail crime.

Criminal organizations hire professional thieves or people who smuggle into the United States from other countries. These people hand over the stolen goods to people waiting nearby. After the other party pays the reward, the goods are transported to the warehouse, where specialized people remove the anti-theft devices or marks on the goods and then sell them through underground markets or e-commerce platforms.

Selling to e-commerce platforms, the profit is as high as millions of dollars

Stolen goods are usually sold on e-commerce platforms, with Amazon, eBay and Facebook being the hardest hit. Recently, a man was exposed to have sold more than $6 million worth of stolen goods on Amazon and Walmart this month. Previously, the largest organized retail crime case in California history was solved, and law enforcement agencies seized $8 million worth of stolen goods.

On Facebook Marketplace, it's relatively simple to start selling. Although peddling stolen goods is against its policies, Meta generally doesn't require proof of identity, just a basic name and a verifiable email or phone number required to open a Facebook account.

An Ohio man says he can make $2,500 a day by posting stolen power tools on Facebook Marketplace and then meeting customers in parking lots to sell them for nearly half the price.

Starting with e-commerce platforms, the pressure will be put on third-party sellers

Critics say low barriers to entry for online marketplaces have fueled the trend. In December, 20 major retailers, including Home Depot, Best Buy, Walgreens and Kroger, sent a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to crack down on online marketplaces by requiring stricter verification of sellers.

The House of Representatives passed a bill called the INFORM Consumers Act, which would require some sellers on sites such as Amazon, eBay and Meta's Facebook Marketplace to provide verifiable bank accounts, tax IDs, and valid email and phone numbers. However, due to market resistance, the drafters had to rewrite the bill several times.

Amazon, eBay and Meta have all expressed support for the bill, which currently only requires sellers with revenue of more than $5,000 every two years to provide verification data. Amazon, eBay and Meta told CNBC that they already have various protections in place to keep stolen goods from entering their sites.

Faced with the increasingly rampant robbery crimes, the U.S. Department of Justice will naturally not sit idly by. The offline and online retail markets have reached a consensus on cracking down on this highly profitable gray industry and have taken action. This means that major platforms will crack down on the source of "sellers" and strengthen the identity verification and review of sellers.

However, as long as the sellers operate in compliance with the law, there is no need to worry too much. Removing these illegal goods from the market will be more conducive to healthy market competition and more beneficial to sellers who operate in compliance with the law.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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