(Yicai Global) July 4 -- The two-child policy and rising consumerism prompt many pundits to project that unlimited potential lurks within China's child safety seat market, which is braced for exponential growth in the next three to five years.

Yet it remains an 'insecure' market in the eyes of consumers at this juncture.

The average usage rate of kid seats is under 5 percent in China, greatly lower than the over 90 percent in developed nations, data show. A late start for the domestic market, as-yet unformed consumer habits and lack of familiarity with child seats are all partly to blame. The gulf in quality between made-in-China products sold at home and those for export and various inferior-quality brands have also cast a pall over consumer confidence in kid seats.

Nearly half of the 10 most popular safety seat brands rated based on consumption Big Data from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. [NYSE:BABA] between last April and March this year are foreign makes, with only one of the top three a domestic label, Yicai Global has found. The average price of foreign-branded products is higher than domestic ones. Britax Ltd., the UK brand with the highest overall rating, sets an apt example. Several of its products with sales volume of over 10,000 seats are priced between USD291 (CNY1,980) and CNY2,980.

China has more than one-hundred producers of child safety seats, a profusion some denounce as 'barbarous growth,' Cheng Han, general manager of baby seat-maker Joie (China) Co., told Yicai Global. The low costs of and slap-on-the-wrist penalties for those making commercial mistakes have enabled various brands in the child safety seat industry to disrupt formal manufacturers' business. The spreading crisis of confidence has caught the regulatory eye. Investigations have, however, yielded paltry results because of the special character of the market.

Though China is a small consumer of child safety seats, it is the world's largest producer, churning out more than 15 million annually -- nearly 80 percent of the world's child safety seats -- data on the country's child safety seat industry show.

The use rate of child safety seats is less than 1 percent in China, per data provided by Song Zheng, chairman of Goodbaby International Holdings Ltd. [HKG:1086]. Some 95 percent of such seats produced domestically are for export and only 5 percent are sold within China. China lacks national laws compelling use of child safety seats, thoughShanghai introduced a regulation in March imposing a CNY50 fine on those transporting passengers under 12 without a kid seat. About 18,500 kids under 14 die in traffic-related accidents each year, Chinese state media have estimated, as the Wall Street Journal reported in June 2014.