Gifts / Sports & Toys

The blind box industry ushered in a new norm. A few days ago, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice on soliciting opinions on the "Guidelines for the Standardization of Blind Box Business Activities (Trial) (Draft for Comment)". How will this affect the industry? How will leading companies respond? Regarding some issues that the market is concerned about, the author interviewed Bubble Mart and a number of relevant experts for the first time.

The blind box industry will have national guidelines

Judging from the draft for comments, this normative guideline has made clear specifications on the types of blind boxes, pricing, extraction probability and even the protection of minors.

Bubble Mart said that the blind box is a popular form of sales in the fashion game industry, and the introduction of the normative guidelines will promote the healthy development of the industry. Giving clear guidance at the regulatory level will allow companies with standardized operations to have a clearer development direction and help create a better business environment. "At present, it is the stage of soliciting opinions. We will also actively communicate with relevant departments and offer advice and suggestions. We believe that the industry can become more and more standardized under the guidance of supervision, achieve healthy and orderly development, and promote the further development and growth of China Chaowan." The company is responsible for people said.

"Regarding the normative guidelines for the blind box industry, the Shanghai market supervision department has issued a local guideline before, and this time the guidelines are issued at the national market supervision level." Guo Weihong, deputy director of Yingke Network Data Security Compliance Center, said that the current standard The guideline is still a draft for comments. After the official release, the blind box field will have a nationwide policy basis, and localities can directly follow this guideline to regulate and guide the blind box market without special circumstances.

Guo Weihong believes that the normative guidelines themselves are based on multiple higher-level laws, so violations of the guidelines can also be punished and regulated by the relevant higher-level laws, which is of great significance for clarifying the red line of industry development. "In the past, there were participants in the market who used the name of 'blind boxes' to cover up their illegal business purposes, disrupting the entire market order. Standardized guidelines can help companies that truly focus on blind boxes to conduct compliant operations under legal regulations."

Regarding the price-related terms that have attracted much market attention, Guo Weihong believes that the national guidelines have been significantly adjusted and optimized compared to Shanghai's regional policies. "The relevant clauses actually restrict two scenarios. One is the increase in the price of the same blind box product to be sold in the clear box." Guo Weihong pointed out that many merchants have also offered the same product while launching the blind box. The clear box version, the latter sells for significantly higher than the former. "For the same thing, the blind box becomes a means of increasing the price. This behavior is definitely not encouraged by the normative guidelines."

"In the past, some merchants may use blind boxes to sell products. The original products may only be one or two thousand yuan, but the price becomes five or six thousand yuan after packaging them into blind boxes." Guo Weihong introduced that this gap between the original price and the sales price Excessive behavior may now constitute price gouging or price fraud under the new regulations. "It is recommended that the value of blind box products should not be much lower than the price of blind boxes."

The threshold is raised to accelerate the clearing

"The concept of the blind box was first proposed by Bubble Mart, a leading domestic trendy game company, and became popular among young people." Zhu Yiming, executive director of Sullivan, believes that 2019 is called the first year of China's blind box. With the popularity of the blind box trend, this form has also been used for reference by more and more industries. "Some of these companies deceive consumers in the name of blind boxes."

In recent years, various merchants have frequently played blind box concept cards, and dumped their inventory to consumers in the form of lucky bags and big gift bags.

"Especially at the end of various seasons, one or two expensive explosives are used as bait. In fact, most of the gift packs are backlogged inventory." An e-commerce practitioner said that the content and price of a large number of gift packs on the market were completely complete before. not proportional. Once the means are abused, the rights and interests of consumers will be violated.

"This standard guide will undoubtedly raise the industry's entry barrier." Zhu Yiming believes that in this context, blind boxes may get rid of the fate of becoming a marketing tool. "For example, the requirements for the type of blind boxes and the probability of extraction procedures will increase the cost of entrants. Coupled with the restrictions on profitability, it will speed up the clearance of small non-standard manufacturers at the tail end, and the industry concentration will increase."

"This normative guideline clearly regulates many processes in the industry, which is very important." Cheng Qi, a senior analyst in the consumer industry of the Toubao Research Institute, believes that the draft for comments clearly puts forward a proposal for the secondary market of blind boxes. Specifications, requiring no stockpiling, no hype, etc., are particularly important for the healthy operation of the blind box market.

"Artificial hype and hunger marketing are common methods used by many non-standard small manufacturers in the market." Cheng Qi said that in the long run, the introduction of the draft for comments is a good thing for leading companies in the industry. It is beneficial to the operation and development of leading enterprises, and at the same time accelerates the clearing of operators who rely on speculation and other means to make profits.”

Regarding Bubble Mart, which is concerned by the market, a relevant person close to the company said that the new regulations are aimed at controlling disorderly behavior in the industry, "For a head company like Bubble Mart, the operation will not be too much affected".

"Generally speaking, the standard guidelines focus on issues such as price and sales. For leading companies, there are still relatively few cases of non-compliance." Guo Weihong believes that as a marketing method, the price of blind boxes will inevitably be related to the commodity. There is a certain gap in its own value, and how to control this gap will become the focus of future industry supervision. Normative guidelines need to take into account the rights and interests of consumers and the order of business operations.