What Is Temu All You Need to Know

You have probably heard of Temu! The Chinese shopping app has become one of the most downloaded apps in the U.S. since its launch in August 2022. It offers a similar value proposition as AliExpress or Wish, with a focus on providing inexpensive goods that can be shipped within a week or less to Western consumers. Will Temu be able to maintain its position in the coming years?

Temu’s popularity can largely be attributed to advertising but also to its strategy of offering free items to users who promote the app on their social networks and get their friends and family to sign up.

Temu also has some benefits over its direct competitors:
First, it has stricter controls on merchants, which means that products on Temu are required to match the product listing closely, so what you see in the pictures is what you get.
Secondly, Temu is a very customer-friendly shopping experience.
Third, the shopping app has reasonable delivery times. Currently, the average product is delivered in 5-7 days, compared to sometimes a month on AliExpress.
Last but not least, Temu does not require merchants to purchase from suppliers until after a consumer has placed an order. This means that Temu needs to have local warehousing.

But the app is also confronted with important challenges, such as consumer doubts about a foreign Chinese marketplace, compliance issues, and the fragile logistics infrastructure which is still at an early stage.

The success of low-cost players like AliExpress and Shein has made us aware of the global downgrading of consumption. Temu should continue to learn from the lessons of other similar marketplaces and improve its sustainability to avoid just becoming a flash in the European and US markets.