After one month in Temu, sellers have fallen into so many traps?

2022 is about to pass, and this year's cross-border circle has been full of turmoil and major events.

Throughout the year, the top internet celebrity in the cross-border circle belongs to the overseas version of Pinduoduo - Temu. At present, with Temu's continued attack on the overseas market, a number of cross-border e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, have been greatly affected.

However, after some sellers entered T emu , they found that there were many pitfalls waiting for them.

Temu can't roll?

Policies are changing frequently and sellers are suffering great losses!

Some time ago, Tenu , a subsidiary of the domestic cross-border e-commerce company Pinduoduo, surpassed the two traditional mainstream platforms Wish and AliExpress in the North American market, achieving a dimensionality reduction attack on the two old platforms Newegg and Overstock!

What is even more amazing is that despite the efforts of multiple overseas e-commerce platforms, T emu was still able to "carve out" a path, and under the influence of many factors such as the epidemic and the overall environment, T emu App has achieved great success. According to Sensor Tower data, in less than four months since its launch, T emu has been installed 10.8 million times in the United States , becoming the most downloaded mobile application in the United States from November 1 to December 14.

Image source: TEMU

T emu adopts the strategy of high-quality pictures and low prices , which makes it competitive among similar e-commerce platforms in the United States. For example, the prices of summer women's clothing are mostly kept below $20, and the prices of many accessories and daily necessities are no more than $10. However, T emu , which relied on low prices to win and made great progress, seems to be unable to win recently.

After Temu cancelled its "10 billion subsidies" for sellers, sellers ' shipping costs also saw a substantial increase. According to a Temu seller , "Since Temu cancelled the sellers' original shipping subsidies, the weekly shipping cost is now close to 1,000 yuan (sometimes even higher). After deducting the purchase price of the products and the shipping cost, there is actually very little profit left. Let's not even think about making a big profit, as long as we can break even... "

Moreover, T emu's new regulations stipulate that from December 12, if the weight or volume (length, width, and height of a single item) filled in by the seller on the platform differs from the actual weight or volume by more than a certain value, the seller must pay a penalty to the platform, which also means that the seller's operating costs will increase.

In addition, Temu sellers ’ sales and rating mechanism has also been changed. If there is no sales in 14 days, or the sales are less than 30 pieces/90 USD in 30 days, the sellers will have to reduce the price or withdraw the supply. Products with a rating of less than 4.5 points and 1-star reviews with quality problems will most likely be removed from the shelves... It is said that Temu’s operation is to screen “high-quality sellers” .

Many sellers expressed that T emu ’s above operations were “too deceptive!” In fact, T emu is not the only deceptive company. Sellers have even tended to change the overseas version of Pinduoduo into one with more “deceptive” features.

Is Pinduoduo's name change a "pitfall"?

After one month of using Temu, sellers’ profits are negative!

Pinduoduo has become famous in China for its viral marketing. A seller said, "When we first started, Pinxixi was on par with platforms like Meilishuo and Mogujie. It had not yet advertised on major TV stations, and not many people knew about it. It was really good at that time. We could get 1.2K orders by signing up for an event."

Everything seemed to be going well, but it was interrupted by a sudden accident. According to him, "One day, the link of a store was checked and fined 10 times the cost of the last three orders, plus there were 30,000 in the store, a total of 12+W." In this regard, he could only helplessly say: " I really don't know how much I will lose until the last moment... "

Domestic sellers have had their share of setbacks, and foreign sellers on T emu are not much better. According to sellers’ feedback, “I sold my first order on T emu in October, and tried two products two days ago. The experience I gained is that as a Soho seller, I can continue to operate; as an Amazon seller, I should stay away from T emu , or I will be unlucky. ”

Image source: Weibo

Many sellers must have felt the same way about this seller. One seller said that in the past month since joining T emu , "628 orders were sold, sales amount was 19,041.3 yuan, the amount available for withdrawal was 0 yuan, and the profit was negative." He also summarized the pitfalls of T emu through his own experience, which are roughly as follows:

The above pitfalls are all very frustrating for sellers. Of course, what is even more frightening is that T emu’s deposit is even more ruthless than Amazon’s. It really feels like we are at the mercy of others. Therefore, some sellers joked: “ T emu ’s cut, as the name suggests, is a cut for the sellers!”

Low prices are not a long-term solution!

What does the big seller’s entry into Temu imply?

At the end of 2022, clearing inventory is still a rigid demand for sellers. Faced with redundant inventory and high FBA storage fees, many Amazon sellers have no choice but to choose T emu .

One seller said: "It has been less than a week since the arrival of the Temu . I have received about 70 orders in total, about 20 orders per day, and the profit is 0%. I sell at break-even. I am very happy to clear the backlog of inventory for many years. It is 10,000 times better than throwing it in the trash."

Image source: Weibo

However, if you want to make money, is T emu really a good choice? As mentioned above, T emu has many pitfalls, including aggressive price cutting, heavy penalties for violations, etc. Some sellers joked that Pinduoduo's sickle is longer than Amazon . T emu is obviously not something that all cross-border sellers can play with.

For buyers, the temptation of low prices is indeed great. When we open the T emu page, we can see many products priced below $1 and the sales volume is not low. It even offers the gimmick of "free returns within 90 days". It is no wonder that during the peak season when sales of most Amazon sellers are falling, Pinduoduo T emu can still maintain high sales.

Image source: TEMU

However, for sellers, the brute force low-price strategy puts sellers under heavy pressure to make profits. The T emu platform cannot continue to burn money to provide blood, so T emu has started to increase prices. Recently, some sellers found that " all the prices on T emu's front desk have increased ." Even if the front desk price increases, sellers without pricing power will not get a penny more, but how many consumers can be retained after the platform price increases is directly related to the seller's future plans.

An industry insider analyzed: " After accumulating sufficient traffic, T emu will definitely adjust its model to improve profitability, including adjusting the category structure and increasing the average order value. "

At the same time, cross-border sellers have also turned their attention to T emu , including Huakai Yibai, Youkeshu and other brand sellers. Their entry has further confirmed T emu’s direction of upgrading and transformation and its determination to maintain the platform’s marketing environment.

The story of T emu , the overseas version of Pinduoduo, is still ongoing. Although there have been many doubts along the way, if it continues with its current development momentum and Pinduoduo's "strength", T emu will not only be able to compete with SHEIN, but it is not impossible for it to face off against Amazon in the future.

Under this circumstance, the T emu platform can treat sellers in a more humane and reasonable manner, and may be able to gather more sellers and be more powerful overseas!