How Packaging Design Can Help Prevent Porch Piracy
The holiday’s are here again! A time of cheer, family, and getting packages delivered to your front porch. But as with all good things in life, risks lurk ready to spoil your good time. And in this season, that can only mean one thing. Porch pirates.
As ecommerce continues to boom, so does the amount of porch piracy, and in fact, roughly 1 in 4 Americans (49–58 million Americans) have experienced last mile package theft. In 2024, this amounted to, at a conservative estimate, 58 MILLION packages stolen in the US.1
According to a US Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG) report from May 2025, financial losses from stolen packages are in the range of $5.2 to 16 BILLION USD a year (2024). When looking at the value of the stolen packages, the average cost of goods within the packages was between $50 and $204 USD.2
Most thefts happen in broad daylight while people are at work, which means the last 50 feet of your package’s journey—from the delivery truck to your doorstep, known as the “last mile”—is more vulnerable than ever.
Luckily, there are practical steps everyone can take for protection against porch piracy. Just listen to what Packaging School founder, Dr. Andrew Hurley, had to say when he was recently interviewed by WYFF News 4.
"The first one is adding clear delivery notes so your packages are hidden from view. You can also use a lockable porch box and you can have a combo code, and you can share that code in your delivery instructions."
Additional measures include: real-time alerts, video doorbells, neighborhood networks, and choosing signature-required shipping for expensive orders.
But this isn’t just a consumer issue.
"The brands that I work with, they make the inside of the box special. And they keep the outside of the box plain so they’re not advertising to porch pirates."
Packaging engineers can also help by using tamper-evident seals, adopting smart sensors and trackers, and designing boxes that fit into those parcel lockers or package drop boxes.
A recent Amazon and Packaging Digest study on the SIPP (Ships in Product Packaging) program reveals why ecommerce-focused packaging is becoming a strategic priority for brands—and why this matters deeply to packaging designers.
The study found that 83% of participating US packaged goods manufacturers would recommend the program, and 70% believe a dedicated ecommerce packaging strategy provides a competitive advantage. These insights highlight the increasing expectation for packaging to do more than simply protect a product.
The top benefits cited by SIPP participants—enhanced sustainability impacts, improved customer experience, and stronger brand positioning, each at 69%—show that design choices now directly influence environmental performance, customer satisfaction, and overall brand image.
For packaging designers, this reinforces their critical role in shaping meaningful, business-driving outcomes. It also highlights the importance of thoughtful choices that directly influence customer perception and brand security. For example, designers can ensure that shipping labels do not reveal or describe the product inside the package—much like Apple, which intentionally keeps its ecommerce packaging unbranded to protect shipments and create a clean, premium experience.5
Overall, the goal is simple: make ecommerce packages harder to notice, harder to access, and harder to resell. Porch piracy may be a modern problem, but with smart design and smart habits, it doesn’t have to be the inevitable conclusion to shopping online.
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Resources:
United States Postal Service. (2025, May 15). Package Theft in the United States. https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2025-05/RISC-WP-25-002.pdf
Office of Inspector General - United States Postal Service. (2025, May 15). Package Theft in the United States. https://www.uspsoig.gov/reports/white-papers/package-theft-united-states
Pierce, L., Sperber, B. (2025, Dec. 1). Amazon Study Exposes Untapped Brand Power. Packaging Digest. https://www.packagingdigest.com/packaging-design/amazon-study-exposes-untapped-brand-power
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