Children's shoes and labeling. New rules of work will not help bring the children's segment out of the shadows

Before finding answers to these questions, let's look at what was the basis for the introduction of mandatory marking.
There have always been companies on the market operating according to both “white” and “gray” schemes. Tools previously used to protect the business (GOST, TU, certification) were ineffective. The development of information technology allows each pair of shoes to be marked, which, in turn, makes it possible to trace the entire path of its movement along the distribution chain, including the payment of all mandatory payments - duties, taxes and fees. Pairs of shoes that do not have such a passport should be removed from sale.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary that the shoes are marked at the very beginning of the distribution chain - in production. But today, marking shoes can not be done at the first stage, it is allowed. It is enough for the owner of the product to buy markers for any batch of shoes and stick them on an individual package of pairs. The shoe passport is filled out according to the owner of the goods. This approach allows us to mark not only “white” shoes, but also all “gray” shoes.
The market capacity of children's shoes is about 150 million pairs per year. At the same time, no more than 10% is sold in “white”. It is impossible for such a huge, streamlined “gray” business process to disappear overnight. Most likely, the purchase of markers will be added to the existing gray sales schemes.

In order to avoid problems with the law, manufacturers at the production stage should start labeling (this is actually assigning barcode to each size), which in itself is a very useful phenomenon. Intermediaries (wholesalers, shops) should start cooperation only with suppliers of labeled shoes.

Given the predominance of “gray” schemes of product promotion and the imperfection of the labeling system, it can be assumed that no significant changes in the distribution chains will occur.
The new law is controlling, restrictive, punitive. It is aimed at protecting the interests of the state and a small number of "white" suppliers, but does not protect the interests of consumers. Moreover, its introduction will definitely lead to an increase in prices. The procedure for introducing the new law also raises a number of questions. It is clear that from July 1, all manufacturers will begin to label (barcode) shoes. These actions are logical and not so complicated. But it’s absolutely not clear why all intermediaries should mark their stocks? What for? All shoes produced before 2019 July 1 year are not marked and should not be marked. It is necessary to wait for its natural sale during 2019-2 years, and only then require intermediaries to have markings on old shoe residues.

Being an intermediary in the distribution chain, our company continued and continues to cooperate only with "white" companies. In the period remaining before the law is introduced, we will reduce the level of unmarked shoes in our warehouse to the minimum values ​​and then mark the residues.