When US shopping app Temu burst onto the scene in early September 2022, it blitzed consumers with deals so good that even some sellers on other e-commerce sites ordered their goods from the upstart. 

As Temu heads into 2023, retail industry executives and analysts have realized that this e-commerce site is here to stay and is setting a new trend which empowers customers’ individuality with products sourced globally to fulfill their dreams. 

Temu’s Headstart

Temu was brought to the world’s attention not by a press release or any official announcement. Instead, a well-followed tech blog first reported on its impending launch, which roused the interest of the mainstream business media because of its backer – Nasdaq-listed PDD Holdings. 

PDD Holdings is a multinational commerce group that has been listed on the Nasdaq since 2018. It operates a collection of businesses that includes Pinduoduo, which started as an online agricultural produce seller before expanding to become one of the world’s largest social commerce platforms. 

PDD Holdings’ network of global suppliers and manufacturers, as well as logistics fulfillment services providers, handles ~200 million parcels per day. It is this deep well of expertise in procurement, order fulfillment, and customer care that makes Temu’s shipping reliable and trustworthy.      

The Future of E-commerce 

By focusing on a differentiated pure marketplace model, where Temu’s success depends on the success of each partner and customer, Temu has set its eyes on empowering every participant of the platform. Instead of owning its own brands, Temu is not biased towards any brand or product. What matters to Temu is the quality of each product and services of each merchant that together serve the needs and wants of its customers.

The rise of e-commerce in the past 30 years has further industrialized retail by cutting off many layers of middlemen and distributors to increase the efficiency from creators to end users. We have seen the success of Amazon, which has disrupted not one, but several product verticals, such as books, electronics, and even groceries during the pandemic. E-commerce has made life much more convenient and efficient for people around the world thanks to the power of the Internet. 

The future of e-commerce today is no longer about disintermediating or optimizing the manufacturing supply chain. It is about seamlessly matching users' individualized needs with resources from anywhere in the world and getting the product delivered to them with the best available logistic facilities. Consumers are no longer constrained by what they can get, but liberated to have what they want to get. New businesses will arise because of all the creative, and yet practical, needs of global consumers. Temu has been set up to enable such a movement given its roots and support of its parent organization PDD Holdings.

During a recent conference call for analysts, PDD Holdings management noted that the group has incubated nearly a thousand such “manufacturing brands” in the past seven years. 

According to Temu, the company is supporting its small to medium sized merchants and manufacturers to create products to match consumers’ requests based on the interactions and activities on the platform. 

Temu Cares About Its Customers

Temu also empowers its customers by democratizing access to experiences through their amazingly priced product offering. A recent check of several e-commerce platforms found that the same 18-piece professional manicure set sold at different price points on Walmart, Amazon, and Temu. 

The price ranged from US$5.99 on Temu to US$20.89 on Walmart, while the projected delivery time frame for standard shipping varied from as quickly as 5 days to as long as 25 days.      

‍

E-commerce Site

Price

Estimated Delivery 

Walmart

US$20.89

9 days

Amazon

US$12.98

7-13 days

Temu

US$5.99

5-14 days

So far, Temu has won over many consumers with its brand of value-for-money commerce. 

“I have had an Excellent experience with this company. My order arrived within 2 weeks and everything was great,” a Temu customer, Lynda McGovern, wrote on Trustpilot, an independent reviews site. “I ordered little stocking stuffers and a sweater and boots. The sweater is perfect and now my go-to piece of clothing. The boots are warm and well-made and comfortable. And they emailed me with Tracking every step of the way. I’ll continue to order from them.”

Another shopper, Vane Florez, wrote: “This platform is spectacular. I like all the beautiful options that they have for Christmas. The clothes are cheap and beautiful. I ordered a sweater that I loved very much. It’s of good quality. I wish there were more options to buy. I recommend this platform.”

Temu has introduced stringent quality control system. It offers quality and affordable products.

Sellers in various internet forums have commented that Temu is evaluating existing sellers on metrics like customer reviews and sales as part of an ongoing exercise to improve the quality of products and user experience. Sellers with poor or no sales risk having their product listings removed, as do vendors with poor ratings, according to these suppliers. 

The Future for Temu

“Temu would be interesting as a marketplace connecting consumers directly to factories, but if it introduced the social commerce innovations of its sister app Pinduoduo, then they could really get somewhere,” said a veteran retail industry executive-turned-consultant.

“Affordability plus quality is always a winning combination,” said the retail industry consultant. “If you can give consumers what they want when or, better yet, even before they want it with superior market trends’ analysis, then that would be a game changer for the e-commerce sector.”