Fraudulent Returns Cost Retailers Up to $16 Billion in 2013
Merchandise returns in 2013 cost U.S. retailers more than $267 billion in lost sales, and retail fraud and abuse accounted for $9.1 billion to $16.3 billion in the United States, an increase of 2.6 percent from 2012, according to The Retail Equation’s 2013 Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry report.
The extreme loss of profit has the potential to cause retailers to offset the negative business impact by raising prices and reducing costs, which could mean a loss of jobs. Last year, retail fraud cost retailers and workers between 331,000 and 595,000 jobs, which costs states a total of $549 million to $989 billion in lost sales taxes, the report states.