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For some shoppers, inspecting an item in person helps them know what they do and don’t like about it.
These shoppers are becoming increasingly rare, however.
U.S. retail e-commerce revenue reached an estimated $167 billion in 2010 and $225 billion in 2012, according to eMarketer, a market-research company based in New York City. By 2017, the company estimates it will have reached $434 billion.
At the same time, complaints traced to the e-buying experience also have increased, said Lesley Fair, senior attorney for the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Internet transactions represented 11 percent of the complaints received by the FTC in 2010; in 2012, they represented 12 percent of complaints.
“That may not seem to be a big increase, but in the scheme of things, it is,” Fair said.
“Are there more complaints because there is more deception online, or is it because more consumers are shopping online than before? The other issue is that more consumers are finding their voice and complaining to us.”
And although the FTC cannot negotiate individual disputes between consumers and businesses, reports help identify new scams or sites making deceptive claims. “We have to rely on consumers to be our eyes and ears,” Fair said.
Consumers need to take precautions when shopping online, said Doug Johnson, vice president of risk-management policy for the American Bankers Association, a Washington-based advocacy group.
“We encourage customers to look at their accounts quite often and immediately alert your bank” if anything suspicious occurs, Johnson said.
Sometimes, consumers get more than they bargained for because they fail to read the fine print. Other times, it’s a case of fraud.
Johnson said financial institutions are stopping much more illegal activity. “For every dollar of fraud which does occur against a depositor, we’re able to stop $10,” he said. “That’s $1 to $10. It was $1 to $1 back in the late 1990s.”
At American Express, every transaction goes through fraud screening before it is processed, said Amelia Woltering, director of corporate affairs and communications. Card members can sign up for free fraud alerts that will notify them of any online transactions made on their accounts, Woltering said.