It’s all in the packaging. Narvar has solutions to help retailers thwart porch piracy, and navigate returns and last mile delivery.
COURTESY OF NARVAR
Call it high anxiety. Two-thirds of U.S. consumers feel nervous after they click the buy button. Frustration over making returns, porch piracy and the worsening economy are cutting into retail sales as 40% of consumers in 2025 abandoned their carts, according to a survey from Narvar, a top platform for intelligent personalization. The company powers more than 1,500 brands including LVMH, Sephora, Levi’s and Warby Parker.
Rising theft, delivery failures and inconsistent communication have turned the returns experience into one of the biggest sources of friction for retailers struggling to protect margins and loyalty, Navar said in its new 2025 State of Post-Purchase report.
“There are clear signals that consumers are looking for certainty,” said Anisa Kumar, CEO of Narvar, in an interview. “Retailers that treat post-purchase as a strategic extension of their brand, not just a logistics function, will be best positioned to build and sustain loyalty in a market where expectations continue to rise.
“In a volatile economy marked by rising costs and cautious consumers, shopper trust has become a retailer’s most valuable asset,” Kumar said. “Every missed update or vague delivery estimate erodes that trust and the impact shows up on the P&L as support costs, cancellations and lost loyalty. Retailers giving consumers clarity, consistency and control after they buy will be the ones that preserve profitability in an uncertain market.
Shoppers are paying to feel more confident about their purchases. For example, 37% paid for shipping insurance last year, the Narvar report said. But anxiety doesn’t stop at checkout. It continues through every step of delivery, return and resolution.
The lack of trust translates into financial and operational strain for retailers, which in turn affects policies, pricing and ultimately the fragile consumer relationship, which is especially vulnerable as shoppers become increasingly wary in the face of challenging macro-economic trends.
“The holidays magnify every operational weakness, especially as most forecasts point to a pullback in shopper spending,” Kumar said. “With consumer sentiment down about 6% in November, shoppers are becoming more cautious and emotionally fatigued.”
“When people are worried about their economic prospects, the toll from a poor delivery or return experience feels even higher,” Kumar added. “Retailers that give shoppers certainty, which includes clear delivery timelines, proactive updates, and easy resolutions, will protect both their margins and customer relationships in what’s shaping up to be a cautious season.”
Communication can calm shoppers’ misgivings. “According to our research, nearly 70% of consumers say that how a brand communicates after checkout directly determines whether they’ll buy again,” Kumar said. “This isn’t about impatience but rather a new baseline for trust.”
About 38% of respondents said frequent tracking updates help, while almost 50% prefer SMS/push/WhatsApp for urgent updates, according to the survey.
It’s costing retailers more to do business with consumers as they have to pay for insurance and speedier delivery. Some companies are adding a small fee at checkout to mitigate these expenses because processing a return can cost retailers 65% of sales, and each delivery drains retailers of an average of $25 to $35, according to Narvar.
Returns are a $1 trillion pain point. They can make or break the relationship between retailers and consumers, Narvar’s report said, noting that 90% of shoppers check the retailer’s return policy before buying and 76% won’t buy again after a poor experience.
“It’s important for customers and retailers to know that orders are delivered on time and that the return is processed accurately,” said Sucharita Kodali, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. “Often, returns are black box. The best you can have is a return label from UPS and that doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to get your money back.” Of Narvar, she said, “They’ve always had a solid product.”
Apps such as Refundly have popped up to help streamline the returns process and bring transparency to the angst-ridden procedure.
“Our app brings clarity to the returns process by showing exactly where your refund stands,” said Mark Goffman, who with his wife Lindsay, founded Refundly, an “all in one clean, intuitive interface. We’re on a mission to make financial clarity and trust the standard, not the exception.”
Fraud continues to torment retailers. About 35% of shoppers admitted to return fraud year-over-year. That number is down from 57%, but retailers still absorbed $103 billion in bogus returns last year and abuse is becoming harder to detect.
Porch piracy is a frustrating problem for retailers and it’s only getting worse. At a time when consumers are more impatient to receive their packages than ever, porch piracy in 2025 accounted for $15 billion in stolen goods and consumers hold brands responsible when deliveries don’t pan out.
“About half of holiday shoppers are concerned about having holiday delivered orders being stolen from their doorstep, building or porch,” said John Mercer, head of global research at Coresight. “Good after-sales service, including returns is a top-three factor for 18% of shoppers when choosing where to shop.”
Delivery reliability is also slipping as 74% of survey-takers said they experienced late deliveries, and 86% said they encountered at least one issue when trying to return a product. About 38% of respondents said tracking updates frequently reduces anxiety.
Estimated delivery dates drive purchase decisions. About 60% of shoppers are more likely to buy if they know the exact delivery date. Narvar’s network of data points powered by AI has a 95% estimated delivery date accuracy. If no date is given, 40% of respondents said they won’t buy, the report said.
Roadie, a UPS company and crowdsourced delivery platform, is working with retailers to implement AI-powered fraud detection, which spots irregular activity and one-time passcodes at consumer pickup locations to prevent handing off packages to the wrong person.
When issues occur, consumers want acknowledgement and clear explanations before they have to ask what happened to their wayward order. Narvar smoothes bumps in the road to profitability by transforming returns and exchanges and providing tracking notifications and fraud prevention using AI powered by IRIS and billions of data points.
Kumar said retailers should build trust and loyalty with consumers not just when things go right but by taking care of customers when things go wrong. The post purchase experience, the period after shoppers click “buy,” is critical, she explained.
“When brands can anticipate issues and communicate with clarity, they protect efficiency, strengthen loyalty, and build the kind of trust that drives long-term profitability,” Kumar said. “We’re focused on helping retailers see around the corner using predictive intelligence built from billions of delivery and return interactions to identify friction before it reaches the consumer. ”