BEIJING, January 27 (TMTPOST) — Shanghai Disney Resort is planning to sell its merchandise through the Internet, the resort’s president and general manager Joe Schott said.

Visitors to Disney Shanghai will be able to place their orders on merchandise online and receive the items at home, according to Schott.

Shanghai Disney Resort has announced its sales plan for the 2022 Duffy and Friends Collection. “I promise Shanghai Disney Resort has never engaged in hunger marketing strategy,” Schott said.

The resort’s hunger marketing controversy was caused by its hit product LinaBell collection. In December 2021, LinaBell’s merchandise was quickly sold out and many items then reappeared on third-party e-commerce platforms, selling for thousands of yuan. On December 29, 2021, Shanghai Disney Resort was hit with another controversy involving merchandise as over 5,000 consumers waited in line at Disney Shanghai at 3:00 AM to purchase the 2021 Duffy and Friends collection. One consumer even experienced hematuria because of the long queue. Some netizens pointed out that Shanghai Disney Resort has been using hunger marketing strategies to promote its merchandise since LinaBell became popular.

LinaBell’s popularity came as a surprise for Disney, Schott said, responding to the hunger marketing allegations. “Merchandise is not a core business for Disney. We aim to build an experience for consumers at the resort. We want our visitors to be able to immerse in a joyful experience at Shanghai Disneyland and build emotional connections with the visitors. This is what we focus on doing,” Schott said.

“We never thought LinaBell could become so popular when designing the character. What we will do now is to ensure fairness for each launch,” Schott said.

Schott revealed that consumers will soon be able to purchase merchandise from Shanghai Disney Resort in the future.

Disney Shanghai Resort is gradually transitioning to online sales to ensure a good shopping experience for consumers, the resort’s senior vice president of Operations Andrew Bolstein. However, the transition might take some time to be completed, Bolstein said.