Porch Piracy Myths Busted With Eric Thorson From Norton Shopping Guarantee - Ep. 47
In This Episode
Porch piracy isn’t fun for anybody. But that doesn’t stop Lori and Eric from having a little fun discussing it! In this episode of Unboxing Logistics, they react to videos of porch pirates getting caught in the act. At the same time, they bust some of the most common porch piracy and package protection myths, including these three:
Myth #1: Once a package is marked as delivered, your job is done
It’s a myth that every online merchant wants to believe: once a package reaches its destination, it’s not their problem anymore. Sadly, customers don’t see it that way. As Eric points out, when a package is stolen, shoppers “[don’t] blame the thief or the carrier. They hold the merchant responsible.”
But look on the bright side! If you do things right, your response to stolen packages can help build long-term customer loyalty.
“Once … the consumer starts to use your product, they have a relationship with you. And that relationship will last as long as you're around if you continue to do a good job.”
Myth #2: Doorbell cameras are effective deterrents against porch piracy
Eric says that while doorbell cameras are useful for providing evidence of porch piracy, they’re not a very effective deterrent. The thousands of porch piracy videos online are proof that thieves have thought up plenty of clever (and not-so-clever) ways to conceal their identities when snatching packages.
Myth #3: Package protection is only needed during the holidays
Some businesses believe they only need to offer package protection during high-volume periods like the holidays, when porch piracy is most common.
Eric’s response? “Peak season, holiday season, fourth quarter—that's when the most volume is being shipped. … But [porch piracy] is a year-round opportunistic crime that is way out of control and isn't letting up at all.”
Links
- Connect with Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-thorson-norton/
- Visit Norton Shopping Guarantee’s website: https://norton.buysafe.com/
Transcript
Lori Boyer 00:00
Welcome back to Unboxing Logistics. You know the drill. I'm your host Lori Boyer of EasyPost and today is going to be a super fun episode. I have been so excited to record today's episode. We're going to be talking about porch piracy. No, I'm not somebody who loves porch piracy. You'll find out why I'm excited for the episode in a minute.
But we're gonna be talking all about the myths that surround theft, packages, porch piracy. There are a ton out there. So, I have brought in today a guest who does spend way too much of his time learning and dealing with package theft, all the challenges surrounding that. I have invited Eric Thorson.
Welcome back. He's a returning guest of Norton Shopping Guarantee with Package Protection by EasyPost. They are an incredible company. And Eric, introduce yourself a little bit and tell us about your background.
Eric Thorson 01:01
Hey, Lori. It's great to be back again. So my name's Eric Thorson. I'm the general manager of Norton Shopping Guarantee.
And a little bit about my background in the mid two thousands, I started my ecommerce career at McAfee. And I was a, a lead in the web security group. And I kind of fell in love with the psychology of purchasing online. You know, back then it was just pretty, pretty novel and new. This whole idea of purchasing from going to a screen, putting your credit card and having stuff show up at your house.
But I noticed that a lot of shoppers, they were hesitant and they, I became obsessed with understanding exactly why that was. And then initially people were just wary of buying online because they, it was so new. And, you know, a lot of people feared that their credit cards and their personal data was at risk.
And in 2010, I met a really charismatic entrepreneur named Jeff Grass. He came up with this sort of new approach to addressing emerging concerns around shopper anxiety And what we kind of saw was this, was shopper's anxiety moving away from security and moving towards the actual people themselves and whether they could be relied upon, whether they'll honor their terms of service. And, and we, Jeff and I sort of came up with this idea of creating a super guarantee, a third party shopping guarantee, which inevitably holds brands accountable.
And by doing so that, that increased the confidence, the first time shoppers, and we were able to measure a higher conversion rate.
Lori Boyer 02:34
If you are a criminal and have nefarious intent, you don't want to spend more than 5 or 10 minutes with Eric because he's into that psychology. He will, he will catch you so fast.
Eric Thorson 02:45
Very true. Watch out.
Lori Boyer 02:47
Absolutely. Okay. So today's episode is going to be so fun. Eric and I are going to be reviewing some clips online of some of the, you know, the situations that are caught on cameras and Ring doorbells, all of those things out there that people use porch pirates. We're going to see, you know, what went wrong, what myths maybe people had surrounding those.
And then we're going to be talking about it a little bit. So that's going to be a really fun, different way to approach this episode. Okay. But before we even begin, Eric, what is your favorite comfort food?
Eric Thorson 03:23
Everything. The, all the columns on the McDonald's menu.
Lori Boyer 03:28
You're an equal opportunity food eater.
Eric Thorson 03:30
Oh, man, that's hard. Why do you have to ask these hard questions? I was hoping this was gonna be a softball. So my go to is, I know it's not very it's not very original, but I love pizza. Just a pizza junkie.
Lori Boyer 03:47
I had pizza for lunch today, Eric. It was delicious. I am. I'm in the comfort zone. So I completely agree. Pizza is usually my answer as well. Great one. Today, takeaways.
So on this topic, I always like that if somebody just is able to listen for a few minutes and boy, You're not going to want to listen for a few minutes today because watching these videos is going to be so fun. But if you were only able to hear what Eric has to say right now, what are you know, one or two, three, whatever takeaways, what do you want them to remember from today's show?
Eric Thorson 04:23
I'd say the three that I would really want people to resonate with is I see so many websites so many brands not not signaling or having any sort of consumer third party consumer trust assets. It's such an underutilized yet simple and in many cases free opportunity for them to boost their confidence.
And I always say to brands, I go, look, if you're getting 100 percent conversion rate. Then what I'm saying is, is nonsense. However, you're not, you're probably getting around a 2 percent conversion rate, which means there's a lot of opportunity to to improve. My second observation and suggestions to brands is to, is if you're not tracking your package incidents, you should start doing so.
Many times I find myself engaged with brands where I'll ask the simple question, so how many times in a quarter do you have package theft related issues? Just, just that one alone. And the, and the answer is the common answer I get is, I don't know. And I think it's fascinating because I think it perhaps it's just the bandwidth of actually doing it.
I think perhaps there's a little bit of, deny it. They're in kind of a denial where they don't really want to kind of, some brands just don't want to face that problems, you know, head on. And so I really strongly recommend that they do that. So they at least know what that, what their exposure is. And then lastly.
This is this is insane, but the 2 percent of the annual revenue loss that a brand experiences, 2 percent of that entire number is directly attributed to package related delivery related issues, primarily around the big three, which is package theft, damaged or lost. And I recommend that you at the very least whether it's a problem or not, you should at least provide your shoppers the option of having that additional peace of mind towards a checkout. I think you'll find that your shopper, your your confidence of your first time visitor will increase, they'll convert, and they'll be more likely to remember you and come back again.
Lori Boyer 06:25
I was just on a webinar last week and we were talking about this very thing about providing options. And things like insurance came up organically on that conversation.
And somebody had pointed out in the comments, yeah, you can even, you know, sometimes make it a profit center. You can have them and then get a little cut, but there are a lot of ways you can do it that's totally, totally affordable. That is what's really, really key for ecommerce businesses, retailers, providing those options. I love, so looking at your website, making sure you've got trust signals on there and especially third party.
And tracking your incidents. Really, really critical. And then making sure you're providing options to your customers when it comes to things like insurance. All really great insights. So, okay, so without further ado, what we're going to do now is we are going to watch our first video. We're going to react.
Now, for our audio listeners out there, I am going to go ahead and describe it for you. You may want to hop over to YouTube and, and check this out there so that you can see the video yourself. But if not, I will describe it for you. And then Eric, I'm going to throw at you, maybe a myth that I see or, or, you know, comments that I see around these videos.
So are you ready?
Eric Thorson 07:42
I'm ready.
Lori Boyer 07:43
Alright, let's bring it. Here we go. Video number one. Alright, we got a porch here. Typical porch. Love those couches. We got a delivery guy. He scanned it. Dropped it off. Knocked on it. Ha! Ha! Ha! He goes, whoa! Friday fail. A man ran up, stole the package, took it, while the delivery guy is still literally standing there. Hey, Eric, what'd you see?
Eric Thorson 08:15
Listen, joke's on him. I hope he enjoys that hemorrhoid cream.
Lori Boyer 08:18
Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Exactly yeah, you don't know. So, I couldn't help but notice the scan. The beep! Okay, he scanned it. It's in! It's there! Right? The package has been delivered. Unfortunately one myth that a lot of businesses have is once it's been delivered, once it's been marked as delivered, that your job is done. How is this not true? How is this a myth, Eric?
Eric Thorson 08:47
Yeah, it, it, the job is never done. Many of the brands that I've engaged with over the years are obsessed about customer service. And, you know, clearly, if you're the CEO all the way down you know, to the entry level day to day worker, it's the, the, I'd say, in my opinion, the real heroes are the ones that have to take those inbounds to service their customers.
And they are reps. They are really obsessed. It just never ends. The responsibility is well beyond the product being delivered. Once it goes into your home and once the consumer starts to use your product, they have a relationship with you. And that relationship will last as long as you're around if you continue to do a good job and service them well.
Lori Boyer 09:32
Yeah, we hear a lot about customer loyalty. So I have to imagine that that would be dinged as well.
Eric Thorson 09:39
Oh, yeah, I mean, because what happens is, is that, is the shopper doesn't blame the thief or the carrier. They're, they, they, they hold the, the merchant responsible in their mind. And it's kind of a bad, you know, it's kind of unfair.
It's kind of a bad rap for the merchant. You know, they're, you know, certainly they didn't do that, but, but it leaves that association of that, that bad experience and it just sort of you know, aligns itself back to the brand. So it's just not good.
Lori Boyer 10:10
I think that as well, you know, as we have human nature, we want to kind of blame somebody.
And so I was like, this is your fault. My package was stolen. But it kind of brings me back in a way, Eric, to your third takeaway that you shared, that providing options. Sometimes I think that if you provide an option for insurance, maybe it puts the risk or the benefit or the blame or whatever back on the shoulders of the consumer.
I don't know. Have you seen that?
Eric Thorson 10:39
Yeah, what's what we see in the data is is just over 50 percent of consumers who are presented the offer of optional protection take advantage of it. And I just think that that's a testament of what's going on in society with this problem. And I can, we'll probably continually see the take rates rise on that.
And the shopper, yeah, they, they kind of are provided the opportunity to take on some of that responsibility, but they're also, they just want to, in their mind, they want that peace of mind.
And they're happy to, they're happy to engage it.
Lori Boyer 11:13
Yes. So it's like if I sign up for it, we're like, yeah, well, I, I, great.
I signed up for insurance. I'm, I don't need to worry about the fact that this was stolen. But even if I didn't sign up I kind of think, darn it, I should have signed up for that insurance. I chose not to, to grab it. And some of that heat is taken off of the business as well. So just having that option there is, is critical.
Okay, awesome. Let's move on to our next video. What the heck? Okay, for our listeners, somebody is creeping up to a door, literally in a garbage bag, to steal the package off the porch. I guess the camera can't see who they are. So they've got a garbage sack completely covering them, and they just walked up like a little child, stole the package right off the porch.
Okay, Eric, thoughts on this? Have you ever been in a garbage sack? Stolen something off a porch.
Was it you, Eric?
Eric Thorson 12:12
I've seen it all at this point. I think we can just stop. We can just, we're done. What else could we do here? I think it's ironic that he's wearing a garbage bag and stealing, stealing a package.
I just, it's unbelievable. I've never seen this one, by the way. I've seen a lot of these, Lori. Where did you dig this up?
Lori Boyer 12:35
Hey, that, that goes on one of our producers, Jason. Shout out to Jason. So it brings up the myth for me, though, the idea that sometimes you think, well, I've got the doorbell camera.
Right? So I'm safe. Nobody's gonna be stealing a package. I'll see their face. It's gonna be, you know, John down the street, and I'll catch him on my camera. But obviously, this didn't this didn't play off that way. So it is clear thieves will do thieving, thieves will be thieving, even with cameras.
What is your thought around this myth?
Eric Thorson 13:11
Yeah, I think cameras have been in our society for a long time, not just so much on porches. And, you know, I don't think they're the deterrent that we all want them to be. I think they do serve a good, they do serve to provide evidence. So from that standpoint, cameras are valuable and having that footage is valuable. But you know, I also think the thieves have figured out kind of this loophole because most brands are very, are very good natured.
And they know the thieves know that the merchant will inevitably step in and provide a resolution to that shopper. And I think they're taking, you know, obviously they're taking advantage of that of the, of the good nature of those brands.
Lori Boyer 13:54
Yeah, for sure. What do you think? So as a business, you know, what can I do to educate my customers that, you know, even a camera might not be enough to deter a thief?
Eric Thorson 14:08
Well, I think, I think first, I think being the victim of that first, I think that person and people who have their packages stolen have a, and there's a lot of them by the way, in the, in our U in the U.S. alone, they sort of, they've become sort of advocates by going through that experience. And they've become sort of believers in this package protection option that a branch should be offering.
So, you know, that's certainly one thing to factor, but I just think, I think you know, whether the person that the actual, whether you've been actually victimized yourself and, or you're probably two to three degrees separated from anybody else, from friends and family who have gone through that too.
And so again, it really just, it comes down to the option, you know, we're not, we don't want to force you. Yes. We don't want to force you. No, just give them the option.
Lori Boyer 15:01
I love that. Okay. Let's check out our next video. All right, we got somebody who's, oh, was catching the the thief as he tried to steal the package. It's snowy though, and he backs on to a big snowbank. Gets, gets stuck in the snow. The people are yelling that he's gonna get in trouble. The police are coming. Oh man, is that just karma?
Eric Thorson 15:42
It sure is. Maybe he can, maybe there was some snow tires or chains in that box he stole.
Lori Boyer 15:50
That was just crazy. It makes me think as well of the the myth of the idea that like maybe package protection is only needed during certain times of year. That is a myth that I've heard. Of course, this is snow, but it could be that maybe you know, you only need package protection at peak season or you only should offer, you know. What what do you have to say about the myth that package protection is, you know seasonal?
Eric Thorson 16:18
It's busted. Absolutely busted. Here, if crime only happened at a certain period of time, that would be, wouldn't that be. That would be nice.
It's certainly less, less of an issue in our, in our society. Look, it's you said it, Lori. It's, you know, clearly peak season, holiday season, fourth quarter. That's when obviously the most volumes being shipped. So that means that's going to be equivalent to the most packages stolen. But it is a year round opportunistic crime that is way out of control and isn't, isn't letting up at all.
Lori Boyer 16:54
Yeah, it's crazy. This whole industry, there are full organized crime rings that are just doing porch piracy. And I mean, it's a, it's a massive source of revenue, income for them. And obviously a massive headache for the rest of us in who are trying to deal with it. So unfortunately as you said, time does not stop thieves, but they're gonna do it regardless.
So great point. Okay, next video Okay, so this says this is a thief who apparently, after getting tired of having presents stolen from his porch, this homeowner set up a surprise for his porch pirates. Apparently he was really struggling with it.
Clip 17:47
At first I was just gonna put a box out and then I thought, you know, be kind of classic the old you know poop on a doorstep type thing. So.
Lori Boyer 17:56
That is hilarious. So as as he said and explained in the news story, he put a dirty diaper and so he was able to steal a dirty diaper That's pretty fun. How would you feel Eric if you thought you were getting stealing a Playstation and ended up with a stinky diaper?
Eric Thorson 18:16
It's pretty crappy. No, I would say look, that's the youngest hero I've ever heard of. That baby is a superhero and he or she doesn't even know it yet. So great job. Great job.
Lori Boyer 18:30
Okay. So myth then Eric are only high value packages at risk? I'm thinking this dirty diaper was not so high value.
Eric Thorson 18:40
No, again, it's a crime of opportunity. It's a, it's a great, it's always a gamble for them for the thief.
You know, you could you could have a big box contain a diaper or you can have a small box contain a diamond. I mean, it's just you just never know. Right. And so that is a myth that is busted also because again, it's opportunity. When it presents itself, people are going to take advantage of it.
Lori Boyer 19:09
Now, obviously, Eric, if you do ship high value items, I would think that then insurance and, you know, package protection and all of the things that we talked about before become even more important though.
Eric Thorson 19:23
No, look, it, it, there's a correlation between value and, and, and what, what we find is, is that as that value goes up, so does the anxiety, and the heightened awareness, and the what if and they play it out in their mind. And and they, they want to take all the measures they can to help protect themselves.
Lori Boyer 19:46
So let's say you are a high value person then. You're selling diamonds, you're selling alcohol, some fancy wine, I don't know, something that's going to cost money. Your first takeaway earlier was about like the importance of your website having trust signals and looking I think in general just looking legit. What recommendations do you have in terms. So first of all, what is a trust signal on a website?
Eric Thorson 20:14
Yeah, trust signals they come in a variety of different different brand, you know brands and presentations specifically around Norton, Norton is one of the most globally recognized trust brands for the last 30 years. It's, it's, it's synonymous with many across the world as just, you know, comfort, confidence, peace of mind.
And, and what we're trying to convey and what a brand should try to do is you know, brands themselves often will find themselves making lots of promises and guarantees. They'll even use the word guarantee or best or low. And unfortunately, those are just merely clip art. It's, you know, it's, it's artwork on a website.
It really, it just doesn't have any meaning to it. And what we wanted to try to do is, is, you know in our partnership with Norton, build a product that would give all those claims credibility. And and provide again. What I said earlier is that we want to provide a guarantee. We want to guarantee the guarantees.
You know, we want guarantee to actually mean something to the, to that first time shoppers so that they have that, that comfort of the what if and if something does happen it will be resolved one way or another.
Lori Boyer 21:26
So it's kind of a third party a separate unit outside of just the business saying I guarantee it's gonna arrive. It's a way to provide trust right up front and then continue.
All right, let's let's check our next video. All right, FedEx drivers trying to deliver. Whoa, two guys are fighting this FedEx delivery. Oh, that FedEx delivery guy. That's right, two guys are trying to fight it off.
Okay, so let me explain it a little bit. A FedEx driver is dropping off a package when a person comes up to him on the porch and says, oh, that's mine and I have it. And he's like, Whoa, you live here or what? And he's like, yeah, it's mine. And, and then he's like, no, I don't think you live here. And then a second guy comes up and they kind of try to forcefully take it from him.
In the meantime, the homeowner eventually opens up the door and is like, oh my word, I'm so sorry, I can't believe this. And, yeah, crazy. Two different thieves at once. Eric.
Eric Thorson 22:38
Yeah, I also picked up on when the driver said, yeah, I deal with this all the time. You think they're, I wonder if he's, they're not paying him enough to go through that, right?
Lori Boyer 22:49
No, no, and oh boy, really, it is a risk. The poor carriers, I speak with carriers all the time. And it is a constant struggle keeping their people safe. And so this does bring up the myth as well, though, around the customer experience. What's interesting here is the customers coming out and kind of saw this whole thing take place.
And she was like, oh, I'm so sorry. And and she felt bad. And and overall, it was just like sort of a weird experience for her. I guess the myth I'm thinking here is as long as the package got there safely, then it was fine. Right? Well, no, the package did get to this customer in this case, but she experienced something traumatic.
What do you what do you have to say about that?
Eric Thorson 23:29
Look, You know what? People have enough going on in their world and lives, right? They don't, they don't, not, not only does the driver not need to deal with this nonsense and nor does, nor does the shopper or the homeowner for that matter. And I think it puts them, I think they're both potentially at risk.
Lori Boyer 23:46
Yeah.
Eric Thorson 23:46
I really want to hope that that's an outlier. But Lori, I'm seeing more of those type of videos all the time. And they're, you know, it's just every day there seems to be just a new batch of them. So it's, it's, it's, it's insane.
Lori Boyer 24:00
Crazy and scary. Okay, we got one more video. All right. First thing I noticed on this video is it's night time.
Porch pirate runs up, immediately starts to take off. And the police come around the corner. Did he drop it, Eric? Looked like he dropped the package. He's like, la la la la. Almost feel bad for this porch pirate. He did happen to run right into the police the second that he got caught. Thoughts, Eric, on this one?
Eric Thorson 24:33
Yeah, no hoodie. Rookie mistake.
Lori Boyer 24:36
I love how he dropped the package just there on the ground. This is kind of an just a random question. A myth that I hear is sometimes people avoid getting things like package protection because they think it makes just the whole operational process more complicated.
Why is that a myth?
Eric Thorson 24:55
You know, I think in the earlier days that was true. And, and, and what's happened over the last several years is it's just, it continually gets better and more refined and more seamless. More transparent, more real time. You know, platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce have done a really good job of partnering with companies like ours to, to make that entire experience a very positive and, and and, and very well, and a very intuitive one.
And so, you know, in fact, by having that program, having those programs being offered, it actually does some of the heavy lifting where the brand would normally have to take that on and they don't have to go it alone. Like, you know, find a good partner who's willing to share that responsibility with you, with that, with them and in those events, and they'll find that their customer loyalty will go, go up.
And their revenue will increase as well.
Lori Boyer 25:51
I love it. So so so true and so well said. Eric since I have you here and I've had a ton of fun looking at these videos and talking about myths. But since you're here and you're really an expert on all things package protection, all things porch piracy. I thought that I would throw in a few additional myths just directly about package protection at you. Things that I'm hearing from our community and an audience and questions kind of they have around this whole getting package protection.
So first, if I offer a package protection to my customer, it's just sort of one more thing to do. It's going to make them confused. It's just going to, you know, maybe be one more barrier between them actually closing the deal.
Eric Thorson 26:37
I'd say that was again, you know, just going back a few years, I'd say that would have been that would have been more true than it is today.
But in fact, in fact, the process, what's gone on over the last several years and in coming out and going through COVID and coming out of COVID, where the volumes were just in enormous amount of purchases online were being made, were just incredibly high, unprecedented. What happened during that period is that the shoppers became conditioned.
And what, what we are seeing now is. We're seeing consumers almost going to brands where they should, they're expecting to see package protection as an option. Just as you know, back in 2015, 2016, one, a company called Affirm came on the scene. Well, they're the ones that pioneered this concept of buy now, pay later.
And back then it was this sort of unusual novelty thing. But today, if you go to any website in the world, and if you don't see a buy now pay later, you're going to sit there and go, what's wrong with these guys? We're starting to see that now more and more with package protection offers as well.
Lori Boyer 27:44
I think it's a great point. As consumers, things are weird when you're first introduced to them. You know, early on with online shopping for me, I didn't even like to buy anything except on Amazon or something because I knew exactly what to expect. I knew I could trust them 100%. I knew exactly when it would arrive. But we're way past that at this point. As you said, COVID and whatnot got us so familiar that we're now getting our pharmacy delivered and our groceries delivered.
And, you know, we're used to it more. And so I think that that's a great point. So another myth then that I've heard is that we offer our own insurance. And so that's good enough.
Eric Thorson 28:21
Yeah, consumers are smarter than a lot of people give them credit for. And one of the big, one of the big tells or clues of when you go to a store, when you see a package protection and it's in a generic state, there's really no company that seems to be backing it up shoppers have figured that out, not all of them, but lots of them have. And what they, their first, their first thought that they have once they see it is they go, oh, these guys are just trying to justify, they're just trying to get more money out of me and it's a money grab.
It's just bad, it's not, it's not good optics, guys. I get it, like I get it, brands, why you do it. It's a, you're, you're, it's a, it's a, it's a lot of revenue for you, it's. You're hedging against the potential of a, of a problem or not. However, it's turning a lot of shoppers off. And they want a third party, a credible brand that they've placed their trust into, which when they buy package protection, they know they're actually getting real package protection underwritten and regulated by an underwriter.
Lori Boyer 29:34
Yeah, I love how earlier you, you made that, that vision in my mind of just the guarantee. I can just see some sort of clipart guarantee where nothing flashes more, I think in my mind of like opposite of guarantee, what's happening here? This is not real. So yeah, great point. Okay, what about package protection being a cost center? That it is really costly. That's another myth I hear.
Eric Thorson 30:00
Not only is it not a cost center because again, I have to give credit to the, to the, you know, the state of the art platform, Shopify, WooCommerce and, you know, countless others out there, they've really made the entire integration process very streamlined.
And then once it's installed, we've gone through great lengths to really make sure that it is smooth, self sufficient, almost, almost somewhat automatic, but it gets even a little, it's, it gets better because it's actually, it could be potentially for the right opportunity or for the right merchant could be a profit center for them.
Lori Boyer 30:38
Yeah, absolutely.
Eric Thorson 30:39
That's really exciting. So you basically turn a problem into profit.
Lori Boyer 30:43
And, and typically these type of things, at least I understand from Norton Shopping Guarantee, and we'll talk a little bit about more who you are at the end, but it shouldn't cost money to the business. It should be free. So if somebody is trying to charge you to do any of these things, that's like a big red flag.
Eric Thorson 31:01
Correct. And again, savvy shoppers are figured, have figured that out. And again, it's just, it just leaves a bad taste and a bad impression. And you can't afford to have that because that might've been your only chance to get that person to make their first purchase with you.
Lori Boyer 31:16
Yeah. or their 62nd purchase. You know, we want it as well. It helps us with the loyalty, so I think that's great. So the last myth that I have here is that, you know, there's insurance offered by carriers. I can just use it. Why do you think that that's a myth?
Eric Thorson 31:33
That's a common one, I hear that quite a bit. And it's a logical one because that's, there's the lion's share of that is true.
But carriers, all major carriers by default offer, it's usually a hundred dollars, up to a hundred dollars and it, and it protects against damage or loss. But you notice that I didn't say higher, you know, theft, package theft. That isn't covered. And not only that, if you sell an item that's over 100, which the AOVs for lots of brands are much higher than that, well, you're, then you, then you're reaching into your pocket.
The company is then exposed and is the ones who are inevitably going to be the ones paying that out. Remember that 2 percent I said earlier in the, in this, in this cast, you know, that's where that 2%, that's why it adds up so quickly.
Lori Boyer 32:25
One percent, two percent. I mean, those can become massive numbers numbers.
Eric Thorson 32:30
Yeah, very quickly.
Lori Boyer 32:32
So awesome. This has been really, really great. I want for you to share a little bit with us about Norton Shopping Guarantee with Package Protection. What is it? And how does it work for our audience?
Eric Thorson 32:45
Yeah, Norton Shopping Guarantee is a consumer confidence platform that is which is basically a four in one guarantee.
And it's free for merchants to use. And it's, it's it's, it's the funding or the cost of it is provided by the consumers themselves at their, at their free will. And what it does is it not only provides tackles the package delivery issues that we've been kind of focused on here, but we also provide three other relevant tangible guarantees that all help provide that peace of mind around the shopper's identity.
We also provide a guarantee around the merchant and, and, and stating that that merchant you're about to purchase from is a reliable merchant. And all the promises they make, they're going to keep. And then lastly, and this one's quite frankly, I think it's one of the most popular messages that we offer, which is the low price guarantee.
There, there have been many cases where I've purchased things online and I've gone back to that store two days later or a week later, only to see that that price was dropped. And I kind of said to myself, well, why I should have either waited or gone or gone to Amazon for that matter. And we provide the merchant that resolution or that monetary remedy to their shopper for a low price claim for up to a hundred dollars.
You know, lots of brands offer low price guarantees, but when they do, they're paying for it out of their pocket. When you partner with us, it comes out of our pocket.
Lori Boyer 34:10
Oh, that's fantastic. So if somebody wanted to learn more about Norton Shopping Guarantee with Package Protection, how should they do that?
Eric Thorson 34:18
You can certainly reach out to our web, our primary websites norton.buysafe.com. You could certainly find me on Twitter, Eric Thorson, you know, love to connect with you, you know, and no, no matter what. And if you have any questions or curiosities, you know, again, please reach out.
Lori Boyer 34:35
Yeah, fantastic. Lots of great information. Please, if you are an ecommerce business out there, I absolutely recommend connecting with Eric just to get tips. He's, you know, to get ideas and you, you're facing a situation maybe that you haven't faced before. He is the guy who knows. He's been doing this for years. He knows all about package protection and security.
And of course, he's always super excited to help you if you're interested in Norton Shopping Guarantee of any of that. But also, I know Eric, he's a great guy, and he just loves to help people. So, Eric, thanks so much for being here.
Eric Thorson 35:12
Lori, thanks for having me again. Good to see you.
Lori Boyer 35:14
Yeah, so great to see you.
Any final tips as we close out today?
Eric Thorson 35:19
Yeah, just, you know what, don't, the one thing I would advocate, brands, is please, if you're doing this, stop denying that there's a problem. It may not seem obvious. Dig in, be courageous, look at the problem, and we'll tackle it together.
Lori Boyer 35:36
Fantastic. Couldn't say it better myself. Thanks so much, and we'll see you guys next time.