All hot-selling products! A whole container of goods was stolen in the United States, with a loss of over one million

As long as the goods have not reached the hands of consumers, various accidents may occur, including theft. In the cross-border e-commerce circle, theft of goods happens from time to time. Every time the seller sees the news of "entire containers disappearing", he is extremely suffocated.

Recently, there was news that another container was stolen in the United States. The container was full of hot-selling 3C products, and the loss of goods alone exceeded one million.

Even if insurance is purchased, it is still difficult to obtain full compensation in cases where the entire container is stolen. If the seller is unfortunate enough to encounter such a loss, the loss will be very heavy. The loss of goods is one aspect, and it will also lead to out-of-stock situations. The inventory capacity score, shopping cart, etc. will all be affected.

A Chinese warehouse was robbed late at night and the entire container was directly towed away

No matter how careful you are, it is difficult to prevent thieves, especially in the middle of the night. According to foreign media reports, a Chinese logistics import and export trading company in the City of Industry in Southern California recently suffered a major theft.

A container imported by the company at the beginning of the month was stolen at around midnight. The container was full of popular electronic products, including 3D printers, portable CD players, microphone components, speed skates, portable monitors, USB cables, dashcams, nail clipper sets and manicure sets, touch screen cleaners, cases, etc. The loss was as high as $160,000 (about 1.08 million yuan at an exchange rate of 6.78).

The victim is a Chinese businesswoman. According to her, it was raining when the container arrived on January 3, and the employees unloaded three pallets and decided to lock the container for the next day. Unexpectedly, someone drove up at 11:45 pm that night and unlocked the container. At 12:13 am, someone drove a large truck and took the entire container away.

Although they discovered it quickly and called the police, it was too late to recover him when the police arrived.

The theft of the entire container frustrated the Chinese business woman, as cargo insurance may not necessarily compensate. Now she can only hope that the police can recover the container and reduce the loss. At the same time, she also hopes that her experience will remind Chinese businessmen in Southern California to be especially vigilant against this kind of theft and organized crime.

This logistics company and trading company is close to the industrial zone of Walnut City. There are many logistics companies and warehouses in the area where the incident occurred, many of which are related to electronic products.

The police are currently investigating the case, but based on past experience, the results are usually not good. Either the container cannot be found, or even if it is found, the goods inside have been looted.

Such thefts are not uncommon in the United States, especially during the pandemic. En.com has received many similar feedbacks from sellers. Not only are cabinets parked in warehouses and ports vulnerable to theft, but freight trains in motion are also vulnerable to thefts.

210 million packages were stolen in the U.S. in one year, and Amazon accounted for more than half

In the United States, cargo theft is a $15-35 billion industry. The goods can be stolen from terminals, container freight stations, warehouses, docks, etc. Some may be "taken" by a few pieces, while others may be hauled away by the entire container.

Container thefts at U.S. docks occur frequently, especially during the pandemic, when a large number of containers piled up have given criminals an opportunity to take advantage. Data shows that in 2021, there has been an unprecedented surge in cargo thefts at the two largest ports in the United States. In the third quarter alone, cargo thefts worth $5 million occurred at ports on the U.S. West Coast.

Not only the containers piled up at the port, but also moving trains could not escape the clutches of thieves.

In 2021, they targeted cargo containers on trains near downtown Los Angeles, a large number of packages were stolen, and many abandoned boxes were left on the tracks. These boxes showed that some of the packages were from Amazon.

Last November, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that it had arrested 22 people and recovered $18 million worth of merchandise following a year-long investigation into train cargo thefts.

In fact, it is not just the above cases. Railway theft is rampant in the United States. In January 2022, the Union Pacific Railroad reported that thefts on US railways increased by 160%, with more than 90 containers being stolen every day.

Package theft in the United States cannot be underestimated. According to survey data from the home security website Safewise, 210 million packages were stolen across the United States in 2021, and Amazon accounted for 53.9%.

Amazon dominates the U.S. e-commerce market, with a 56.7% share of the online market in 2021. Therefore, it is not surprising that more than half of the stolen packages are from Amazon. It is also common to see sellers worrying about and complaining about "lost packages".

“——Three shipments were cancelled and then disappeared;

——Recently, there has been a serious loss of items, thousands of tickets have been lost, it's giving me a heart attack;

——We issued 500 of them, sold them at a high price, and they were all sold out.”

Where do these stolen goods end up? Thieves may use one or two items for themselves, but large numbers of stolen goods will eventually have to be resold, and e-commerce platforms, which do not expose themselves and are convenient, often become their preferred channel for selling stolen goods.

"0 Yuan Purchase" products flow into Amazon, illegal sellers benefit greatly

Try to imagine how you would feel if your stolen goods were sold on Amazon.

An Amazon seller in Shenzhen was furious. At the beginning of last year, the seller broke the news to Yien that their entire 40HQ was stolen. After going through difficult claims, out of stock, reduced inventory scores, and lost shopping carts, they discovered something ridiculous:

There are local American sellers who follow their listings, and the products are exactly their stolen products. The sellers who follow them did not even tear off the original product barcodes, but simply covered them.

In recent years, it is not uncommon to see "0 yuan purchase" products being sold on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Walmart. Last year, due to the economic downturn and inflation, similar situations occurred more frequently, and some unscrupulous sellers made huge profits from this.

For example, last year a man in Atalanta sold more than $6 million worth of stolen goods through platforms such as Amazon and Walmart in just one month .

This behavior is an infringement on sellers who sell goods normally. The platform is obviously aware of the seriousness of this problem and has formulated various protection measures to prevent stolen goods from entering their website.

For example, Amazon began to launch a video verification program in 2020, requiring the "vast majority" of sellers to participate in one-on-one video conferences and present relevant documents such as ID cards and business licenses. Another "postcard verification" has a similar effect.

Now Illinois, Arkansas, Colorado and Ohio have passed their own legislation requiring seller verification for online merchandise transactions.

Unlike Amazon, eBay relies on a program called PROACT, a two-way reporting system that allows sellers to alert eBay if a major theft occurs, and the platform then watches to see if matching items appear for sale on its site.

"If a new seller lists 15 iPhones at once and they've never sold anything perfect before, we might flag them," said Carson, who leads the effort.

Container stolen