Blind Box Mania: why Chinese consumers love it

China’s e-commerce scene can be quite overwhelming, even for Chinese consumers themselves! Image: SCMP

This year’s 29-day long 11-11 shopping festival brought the usual staggering, often-overwhelming, range of products all hoping to lure shopping. With so many things on shopping lists and even more items on the catalogue of big e-commerce apps like Taobao, JD, Douyin and Pinduoduo, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. And that is what many Chinese consumers are indeed feeling. One consumer has compared traditional online shopping to a “high-level math problem.” Too much abundance and convenience has caused its own set of problems.

What’s the solution emerging here? It is none other than the rise of “blind boxes” (超市盲盒), which is a simple yet addictive concept.

The star of online supermarket sales at this year’s 11-11 shopping festival was the fresh produce mystery boxes: the “Four Kings” - lamb, fruit, vegetable, and seafood boxes - which went viral and drew massive attention as consumers tripped over themselves to get them. The shift in focus to healthy living has seen 31.8% of consumers expressing a desire for mystery boxes tailored to specific dietary needs or food groups, such as seafood, meat and vegetables in a JD survey. Consumers appreciate being able decide each meal based on the contents of the mystery box, but with the peace of mind that it will be healthy. On top of that, there’s the surprise and fun factor.

In the beauty category, JD’s “Beauty Care Box” trial set, containing a number of well known hair and skincare brands, increased 130% month-on-month. Mystery boxes containing everything from beer to baby diapers all proved popular.

Consumers purchase a box without knowing its contents. But this seems almost irrational at first glance - Why would consumers surrender their agency and freedom to choose?

Blind boxes offer novelty through interesting and even photoworthy products. Image: Xiaohongshu @呆毛diy手作

There are two main reasons for this - convenience and novelty - as uncovered by a survey conducted by Sanlian Life Lab and the JD Research Institute for Consumption and Industrial Development. It uncovered that there has been a change in attitude in how people want to do their regular shopping. 

The survey indicated that blind boxes are a popular choice, often seen as a more economical option compared to purchasing individual items. It noted that over 40% of respondents highlighted the convenience factor, stating that blind box sets save time and effort while offering a diverse range of products. 37% of consumers hope that relevant platforms can launch some regular delivery and regular purchase activities to enable them to make purchases in a more time-saving manner. 36.3% of consumers also hope that more supermarket blind box products can be launched, so that they can enjoy the fun of opening blind boxes of daily necessities while also trying out a variety of different products.

This does not mean that the consumer has totally no choice over what goes into the blind box, and there is indeed a strong opportunity for personalisation of blind boxes. With a clear understanding of the personalised needs of consumers, different combinations offer consumers the most cost-effective and comfortable shopping experience in one click. Indeed, it is not that consumers don't make choices, but that they can save time, effort and worry to make better choices.

Blind boxes offer for customisation, and many consumers have opted for healthy living. Image: Xiaohongshu @跟着CROUS学法语

By freeing up more time away from endless scrolling for products, consumers are now even more able to customise their consumption to their liking. This can allow for even more creative combinations, or health-conscious combinations too.