Heavy fine of 147,000 yuan to sellers! Temu removes a large number of products from shelves

Temu, which quickly became popular with its ultra-low prices, has begun to pay attention to product quality ?

Temu fined sellers RMB 147,000 and removed a large number of products from its shelves due to substandard quality . This is not the first time the platform has removed products on a large scale, as entire categories have been removed before. While Temu is moving forward, many sellers are being strangled by rounds of price increases, and are trapped in a cycle of not knowing how to balance quality and low prices.

Temu removed a large number of products from shelves and was fined 147,000

Recently, Temu has sent out three pop-up messages, all of which are notices on handling violations of product quality accidents. One of them is about a car vacuum cleaner sold by a seller that burned and smoked, causing injuries and financial losses to users. It was found that the merchant had replaced the key component lithium battery, causing the product quality to decline and causing the accident.

The other two pop-up windows contain the following contents: The capacity of 256G memory cards is seriously falsely labeled and inferior products are sold as good ones, and the sellers are engaged in counterfeiting and selling fake products; the smart watch products exaggerate their functions and engage in false advertising.

For the problematic car vacuum cleaners, Temu's penalties include removing the products from shelves and stopping sales, returning all illegal products, and requiring the seller to pay 147,000 yuan in compensation.

Seeing the 147,000 yuan fine, many Temu sellers panicked. One seller lamented: "Fines of hundreds of thousands are easy. Considering that the profit from 400,000 orders was only 7,000 yuan, how many orders do I have to make to be fined enough!" A victim was helpless: "Two stores were fined 110,000 yuan. I worked for a month in vain. I still have a lot of inventory that cannot be put on the shelves. I don't know what to do."

" The costs of many products are there. Sellers invest money, manpower and material resources, but the platform requires them to compete on low prices. Sellers have no profit and can only reduce quality. Poor product quality is the inevitable result of the platform's price pressure . " Another industry insider introduced.

Li Ting, an old seller of Temu, believes that Temu's rectification of product quality may be related to the recent complaints from foreign netizens. Recently, there have been many negative comments on some foreign social media about the poor quality of Temu products. This time, the platform sent a pop-up window to all sellers as a warning, telling everyone not to sell substandard products in the future. If you sell defective products, you will have to bear the consequences and there is a risk of being fined.

It is understood that Temu sellers' products must pass the platform's quality inspection before being put on the shelves, and the platform will also conduct quality inspections regularly. Sellers said that sometimes products that sell well suddenly fail the quality inspection, and the platform does not give any reasons. Recently, a seller's product suddenly failed the quality inspection, and 80% of the returned goods were scrapped.

Many sellers have previously reported that in the face of Temu's price verification, the sellers' quotations would be "cut at ankle". Due to limited profit margins, some sellers can only supply the platform with the worst and cheapest fabrics.

The product was removed from the shelves for no reason, and the seller lost nearly 100,000

Temu sellers supply inferior products, and the platform will deal with them if they find any problems. This is not the first time Temu has removed sellers' products on a large scale.

Li Ting once put a sweeping robot on the platform, which was a low-priced, small basic product with a unit price of 30 yuan and considerable orders. He prepared nearly 3,000 units in stock based on sales, but it was removed from the platform without any warning.

" During the day, they told me to stock up, but in the evening, the buyer suddenly informed us that the products would be taken off the shelves . They said that their quality department had held a meeting and felt that this type of small robot had too many negative reviews. After discussion, the team decided that this thing could not be sold and all products in the entire category would be taken off the shelves. " Li Ting introduced.

The product was suddenly removed from the shelves, and Li Ting's stock could only be returned in batches, with the return fee borne by the seller. As a result of the removal of this sweeping robot, Li Ting probably lost nearly 100,000 yuan.

Luggage was also removed from the shelves. Luggage that was previously being sold by multiple sellers was suddenly removed from the shelves . The platform announced that the platform would temporarily “cut off” the luggage category because luggage is large in size and the cost of air transportation is too high.

Li Ting also paid attention to a six-piece kitchen knife set, which was selling well . The buyer called him to prepare stock . He prepared several hundred sets and sent them to the warehouse. Later, he found that the goods had not been put on the shelves. He asked the buyer for the reason and found out that the platform had issued a new policy. The size of his knives exceeded the limit, so they could not be put on the shelves for sale.

Li Ting was puzzled as to where the knives that could not be put on the shelves ended up. The goods simply disappeared. Another point that puzzled him was that the price of the products had to be checked before they were put on the shelves .

Li Ting said that after a product was sent to the warehouse, it was found that Temu had not put it on the shelves. After asking the reason, he found out that the buyer thought the price was too high and wanted to continue to lower the price. He said frankly that it was normal to have the price checked during the sale, but it was unreasonable to have the price lowered before the product was put on the shelves. The most important thing is that if you do not agree to the price reduction, the platform will not give the product a chance to be put on the shelves, and the product will be kept in the warehouse and will not be returned.

There are basically two conditions for returns on the Temu platform: 1. Failure in quality inspection; 2. Slow-moving products. Since the product quality inspection is fine and it is not put on the shelves for sale, it is not a slow-moving product, so the goods will not be returned, but will remain in the warehouse and cannot be put on the shelves.

Without reference standards, does Temu’s pricing policy have no bottom line?

Whether the product cannot be put on the shelves or is suddenly taken off the shelves, it will cause certain losses to the sellers. In Li Ting's words, the sellers are in a relatively passive situation, and the most fundamental reason lies in Temu's price verification policy .

Take the car vacuum cleaner that was removed from the shelves this time as an example. The product removed from the platform was a super cheap product, and the reason for the removal was that the product quality was not up to standard. Does this mean that the platform has begun to consciously adjust its strategy, no longer using low prices as its trump card, but focusing more on quality?

Many industry insiders believe that Temu’s low-price strategy will not be adjusted in the short term, and this is the platform’s secret to success.

In September 2022, Temu entered the US market with the label of "lower price". Just one month later, Temu topped the list of free shopping apps in the US Apple App Store. According to Apptopia data, Temu is currently the most downloaded app in the United States, and this position has been maintained for seven months, with a total download volume of more than 70 million times.

"In the face of traffic brought by low prices, perhaps quality is not the main thing. What the platform likes most is low prices . " Li Ting believes.

Temu's pricing is to allow sellers of similar products to compete for the lowest price. The sellers with the lowest price have the advantage of traffic, so sellers will use price to compete without any bottom line and look for the lowest-priced materials from the source. This certainly cannot guarantee quality, and ultimately bad money will drive out good money.

As a Temu seller, Li Ting is also worried about one thing: Temu’s pricing policy has no bottom line or standards.

According to Li Ting, after the prices of the products he and his peers sell are determined, they are repeatedly pushed down, and it is unknown how low the prices will be pushed down in the end. The platform does not have a standard, which only allows suppliers to compete with each other without a bottom line. Moreover, the platform's price determination has no reference, such as similar products refer to other platforms, but some products developed exclusively by sellers will also be priced, and sellers have no way of knowing this reference standard.

Currently, Temu implements a strict quality inspection policy. Using fines to restrict sellers does not actually solve the fundamental problem. The fundamental problem of the platform may be that the majority of sellers cannot make money in the face of a price-setting policy with no bottom line.

(Li Ting is a pseudonym in this article)

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