A Wren Says

She lived in a mansion, put her kids in private schools. She was a self-made multimillionaire, and entrepreneur if you will. The problem is that it was definitely ill-gotten gains, accrued by selling shoplifted makeup on an Amazon storefront. You likely heard of the story, and the overall rise in organized retail crime. I’m not in place to comment on that problem. What I am here to ponder is the issue of image of Amazon as a result.

Perhaps unfairly, the mega e-commerce site has had its brand name dragged around with each retailing of the story. The association that develops is that Amazon is a place for thieves to easily sell their stolen goods. And that is certainly not an ideal association.

The company has already had to deal with issues with counterfeit or fake products being stole on the site. Now there is widespread reporting of stolen goods stolen on the site. How do you then rebuild customer trust in the products they hope to buy?

With the counterfeit issue, Amazon had worked behind the scenes to break up those rings. Apparently they are actively employing technology and working with law enforcement to go after criminals who are trying to hawk stolen goods on the site. That is a story the company posted on their news page, back in January before these crime stories went viral. But I wonder if that is something they should spread publicly, beyond responding to media inquiries for inclusion in an article.

It’s a sticky situation. How do you promote yourself as tough on crime, without alarming consumers about the number potentially stolen goods on the site and reducing their trust? I curious how Amazon will continue to manage their public relations on this with continued coverage of retail crime with the intent to sell online.

If you are interested in hearing about solutions that retail wants to see, you can check out this story from NBC news.