Recently, China Central Radio and Television Station broadcast "Why Express Delivery Becomes a "Blind Box"", reporting on the suspected illegal sale and return of a certain express delivery company's Yiwu Beiyuan business outlets. That night, the Yiwu Postal Administration, together with the public security and other departments, organized an investigation overnight, and has now filed a case for investigation of the legal person enterprise involved, and implemented administrative compulsory shutdown measures for the outlets involved.
The "Interim Regulations on Express Delivery" has clearly stipulated that no unit or individual shall not open, conceal, destroy, or resell other people's express mail without permission, and if the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than 100,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan shall be imposed, and may be ordered to suspend business for rectification until the revocation of its express business license. In June 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Guidelines on the Code of Conduct for Blind Box Operations (Trial), which also stipulates that undeliverable and unreturnable shipments shall not be sold in the form of blind boxes.
Although the relevant laws and regulations have long been expressly prohibited, and the relevant regulatory authorities have also carried out rectification actions many times, why is the "express blind box" repeatedly banned?
(Picture from the Internet)
Where does the "express blind box" come from
On the online shopping platform, there are all kinds of "express blind boxes". "Idle express delivery is sold by the catty, 4 yuan a catty, and 5 catties are auctioned. The seller said, "Playing is a heartbeat, and no bad reviews are accepted", and some sales merchants also came with promotional videos. These "express blind boxes" are not only attractive in advertising, but also sell well, and many stores have sales of more than a few hundred orders, and some even exceed 1,000 orders. The way of sales is mostly by the pound or by the piece. What's even more outrageous is that some merchants sell by the ton, and the price of a ton ranges from 6,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan.
It is understood that the so-called "express blind box" refers to the merchant will be some manufacturers to deal with the tail goods of low-cost products, consumer returns, express companies can not deliver and can not return the express mail, etc., according to the number of pieces or according to the weight in the market in the form of blind boxes to sell again, from which profits.
"One of our customers here is to package some low-priced products into 'express blind boxes', including pendants, keychains and other small things. Each time you save a batch of shipments, 1000 orders or 2000 orders or so will be sent once. Recently, Mr. Cheng, the owner of the express delivery network in Chaoyang District, Beijing, said in an interview with a reporter from China Logistics and Procurement magazine.
"There are more such express blind boxes made by manufacturers. Mr. Chen, a courier in Fengtai District, Beijing, told a reporter from China Logistics and Purchasing magazine, "As long as the express delivery guarantees its own profits, no matter what is sent or sent, as long as it is not contraband, it can be taken away and mailed." ”
In this kind of express mail, which is called "express blind box" by merchants, in addition to the low-priced products handled by the manufacturer, there are also many sellers who claim that the source of the goods is the express goods flowing out of the express company, which is the real transaction between the buyer and the seller.
"Consumers return and exchange, express companies can not deliver and can not return the express is the main source of this kind of express blind box. Boss Cheng said that some customers will choose to refuse to accept it if they don't want it after placing an order online and buying it. This kind of refusal to accept express delivery, the courier brother will generally contact the merchant to ask if he is willing to bear the freight return. For the return to the merchant, many merchants will not carefully check. For example, the merchant sent 10,000 orders today and returned 2,000 orders, but the 2,000 orders may only be delivered by the express company, and the merchants may not necessarily have one by one to the order, after all, it requires a lot of manpower and material resources. This situation has been going on for a long time, and over and over again, and some couriers have been left behind.
For this kind of express mail, the "Express Market Management Measures", which was officially implemented on March 1, clarified the standardized handling methods. Article 29 stipulates that enterprises engaged in express delivery business shall handle undeliverable and unreturnable express mail (hereinafter referred to as "undelivered express mail") in accordance with laws and administrative regulations, and establish a verification, storage and handling system for undelivered express mail, and include the handling situation in the annual report of express business license. Enterprises engaged in express delivery business shall not stop the inquiry service within the storage period when handling express mail without possession; shall not dispose of it without authorization before the storage period expires; shall not seek improper benefits; and shall not illegally detain items that shall be confiscated or destroyed.
"Our outlets have also had customers refuse to accept them before, and merchants are unwilling to return the scrapped parts of the delivery freight, so SF Express has a special scrap warehouse in Beijing, and the scrapped parts will be transported there for centralized destruction every once in a while. On April 25, Mr. Hua, an SF courier in Fengtai District, Beijing, said in an interview with a reporter from China Logistics and Procurement magazine.
However, for many independent accounting franchised express outlets, there are certain difficulties in standardizing the handling of unaccompanied express mail. "Because the rejection of the return will incur freight, those merchants are not willing to bear the freight of the refusal of the express, and it has become a 'abandoned item'. Boss Cheng said that for merchants with a large number of shipments per day, the shipping cost of each returned piece is about two yuan. But these discarded items are worth less than two dollars, and the merchant simply doesn't want them. Many outlets of this kind of discarded items are either thrown away, or simply left to the express salesman.
"Of the four or five hundred couriers I send every day, four or five are generally discarded. Some are placed at the door, some are always stored in the express cabinet, and some buyers simply don't want things because they are unwilling to pay the overtime fee for the express cabinet. Chen Fei said that the kind of express cabinet that has not been taken for several months will be taken back, most of which are magazines and books, and there is nothing good.
Why is the "express blind box" repeatedly banned?
Recently, Jiangsu Province, Guangdong Province, Anhui Province and other postal administrations have deployed to carry out special inspections on the handling of user returns and unaccompanied express mail. Specifically, Jiangsu Province issued the "Notice on Immediately Carrying Out Special Investigation and Rectification Work on Problems such as Not Handling Shipments without Shipments in Accordance with Regulations", requiring the postal management departments of the province to focus on distribution centers and large-scale outlets with sorting functions, and strictly inspect the implementation of the verification, storage and processing system for express delivery enterprise users and express mail from five aspects, and severely crack down on violations of laws and regulations such as user returns and express mail that are not handled in accordance with regulations.
The Postal Administration of Fuyang City and County, Anhui Province jointly carried out law enforcement inspections, focusing on express delivery processing and distribution centers and large-scale outlets with sorting functions, and urged mail and delivery companies to strengthen the training and education of laws and regulations for employees in a timely manner, so as to prevent the illegal flow of "unaccompanied express mail" into the market.
Even if it has just been exposed by the media and strictly investigated by the postal administrations of various provinces and cities, it is still difficult to ban "express blind boxes". On April 26, the reporter searched for "express blind box" through an e-commerce platform, and still found a lot of stores that can place orders to buy "express blind boxes".
"The phenomenon of express blind boxes and fake blind boxes reveals that there are obvious loopholes in the internal management, return processing and supervision of franchised outlets. Xie Xiaowen, a special researcher of the China Logistics Society, said that it is necessary to strengthen the standardization and management of the return processing process, establish and improve the internal supervision mechanism, and strengthen the supervision and management of franchise outlets. At the same time, express companies should also strengthen employee training to improve employees' awareness of laws and regulations and compliance awareness. For the regulatory authorities, relevant laws and regulations should be improved, the penalties for illegal acts should be increased, the cost of violations should be increased, and the punishment mechanism should be used as a sufficient deterrent. In addition, the regulatory authorities should also strengthen cooperation with express companies to jointly promote the healthy development of the express delivery industry.
"Solving the problem of express blind boxes and fake blind boxes requires the joint efforts of express companies and regulatory departments, starting from internal management, laws and regulations and regulatory mechanisms, etc., to form a joint force to ensure the standardized and orderly development of the express delivery industry. Xie Xiaowen said.
Zhao Xiaomin, an express delivery expert, also said that from the recent situation, the governance of the express blind box problem depends on the conscious rectification of enterprises, and it is difficult for relevant departments to increase supervision. In addition, this kind of buying and selling is suspected of being illegal and can be governed with the help of relevant law enforcement agencies. As a listed company, the exchange can issue an inquiry letter in response to such situations, requesting explanations from the relevant companies. (This article was published in China Logistics & Procurement magazine, Issue 9, 2024)