The top seller has settled in! Temu is starting to test the waters in the cross-border circle

Since its launch more than two months ago, Pinduoduo's cross-border e-commerce platform Temu has gradually gained recognition in the cross-border circle with its huge traffic and considerable sales, and has become the focus of sellers in recent days. The industry is full of "everyone wants to try Temu", and the top sellers have also entered the market. Some sellers are not clear about the process and even paid 39,800 yuan through a third-party agency to complete the entry.

Previously, Temu was criticized for its low prices. Although some sellers were interested in making a move, they were also worried that they would become "philanthropists" with even more internal competition. However, judging from the feedback from sellers who have already settled in, selling on Temu is still profitable. Therefore, more and more sellers began to apply for accounts, either as a new sales channel or to clear stock.

With its low-price killer weapon, Temu is competing with other cross-border platforms for sellers and customers. This year’s Christmas product sales are a confrontation between it and Amazon. Sellers analyze that Temu’s continued offensive will inevitably have an impact on low-price FBA sellers, and Amazon’s continuous price increase notices will accelerate the sellers’ process of becoming Temu-like.

Pinduoduo is good at rapid fission. Through social media promotion and discounts, Temu's user volume and traffic continue to rise. It has become the fastest e-commerce platform to form scale in recent years after Wish. Some sellers predict that it will become a cross-border "tiger". So how to register an account? What are the hot recruitment categories on the platform? What are the common problems? We have made a systematic inventory.

Temu platform is testing the waters in the cross-border circle

Last week, an investor asked Huakai Yibai whether the company has deployed business in the overseas Pinduoduo version of Temu. Huakai Yibai replied: The company has opened a small number of stores on Pinduoduo overseas. For emerging e-commerce platforms, the company will actively pay attention and adopt a follow-up strategy, and invest resources at the right time.

The attitude of the big seller was an obvious signal. In the following days, Temu’s popularity in the cross-border circle increased sharply, and sellers expressed their desire to test the waters. Those who were quick had already obtained accounts and started uploading products.

How popular is Temu now? Two sentences from sellers are enough to explain it: "The entire cross-border Amazon community has heard the news and moved." "Overnight, most Amazon sellers are talking about the Temu platform."

When discussing potential platforms in the cross-border e-commerce industry, many sellers mentioned Temu, and some sellers said frankly that they were optimistic about Pinduoduo.

From the starting point, sellers join Temu mainly due to multi-platform strategy considerations.

"Amazon's orders have been slow recently, so I wanted to find more ways out, so I applied for SHEIN and Temu, and the latter was closed within an hour." said a seller. Another Amazon seller encountered video verification, and although he passed the review in the end, it made him feel a sense of crisis, so he registered Walmart and Temu successively and started multi-platform operations.

For some sellers, Temu is more suitable for clearing inventory. This year's overall sales volume is lower than expected, and there is a general demand for clearing inventory. A seller cleared inventory through Temu, making several orders a day, and lost less money than clearing inventory through other channels.

It is the peak season for entry, and Temu's review is very fast. "I submitted it at around 6 pm, and it was approved an hour later. I heard that the Temu team also reviews it in the middle of the night." said a seller.

When it first went online, Temu’s extremely low prices deterred many sellers, but actual feedback shows that the platform’s profit margins are more optimistic than people expected.

Take a pair of Bluetooth headphones as an example. The price on Amazon is over US$16, while that on Temu is US$3.7. However, the latter does not have commissions, high delivery fees, and advertising fees. Sellers only need to bear the cost of the product and can also make some profits.

A factory that started making Temu in October now sells hundreds of orders a month and says the profit is not as low as expected. Another seller also said that he currently sells 30-50 orders a day and can make 5 yuan per order, which is not bad.

An e-commerce seller with many years of experience believes that in the early stage of any platform, sellers without a source of goods are the first to enter, and regular sellers wait and see. This stage is the bonus period of the platform. Temu is in this period.

"I now place more than 20 orders a day and can support several employees." "Someone around me joined the company and added 20% profit to supply goods to Temu, with dozens of orders a day." There are many similar feedbacks, and the sellers who joined earlier have already tasted the sweetness.

Temu has attracted a large amount of traffic through marketing and large discounts, and sellers entering the market at this time can naturally reap a wave of dividends. In addition, compared with the surge in traffic, the number of sellers on the current platform is limited, and the competition within the site is relatively small.

For trade sellers who are used to third-party platforms, Temu is an easy-to-operate "lazy" platform. In addition to preparing goods at the platform's designated warehouse, sellers do not need to be responsible for product images, advertising, after-sales and other sales links, which is especially friendly to factory sellers. The platform takes on so much because it positions sellers as "suppliers". Although the operation is simple, price wars are inevitable. Sellers with good sources of goods and factory sellers have more advantages.

This will also affect the existing price system of cross-border e-commerce. For example, if a seller has seen several familiar factory stores on Temu, when contemporary factories supply Temu with ex-factory prices, it will inevitably have an impact on cross-border brand sellers, and it will be difficult for sellers who adopt the direct delivery model to get out of it unscathed.

As the popularity of Temu soared, third-party institutions also saw the opportunity.

Pay 39,800 yuan to move in? Don't fall into the trap

So far, Temu's development has exceeded the expectations of some industry insiders, and there is an endless stream of people interested in trying it. However, many sellers are still unclear about the entry process and requirements, and this information blind spot has become a place for third-party service providers to cut leeks.

Recently, some sellers were invited by a third-party service provider to attend the so-called "Temu Investment Promotion Conference" and were told that they needed a special channel to register a platform account and that the agency would help them register for a fee of 39,800 yuan. At different sharing sessions, this nearly 40,000 yuan fee was also referred to as an incubation service fee.

One seller fell into this trap.

The seller introduced that he attended the Temu on-site investment promotion and product selection meeting in Nanshan, Shenzhen over the weekend. The PPT at the venue clearly showed that the agency was Temu's official designated service provider. The speaker said that this was the only designated service provider in South China. The company can assist sellers in incubation, speed up product review, support the first 10,000 sellers, etc.

One of the products brought by the seller was selected. Out of confidence in the product, the seller immediately signed the contract, paid a deposit of 39,800 yuan, and was told that "a full refund would be given if sales reached 1.5 million yuan."

However, sellers in the industry found something wrong. This investment promotion model, rhetoric and fees are exactly the same as the routines of third-party agencies that have been exposed many times before to attract investment in the name of the platform. In addition, the registration of the Temu platform is free, and there is no entry project that requires a fee of 39,800.

Soon, the seller came to his senses and started to recover the funds. He pointed out that the other party could not provide an official authorization letter and was suspected of false advertising and fraud. Due to poor communication, the seller had no choice but to call the police. In the end, after several strong pursuits by the seller, the money was fully returned.

But there are not many such cases that can be resolved amicably. Other factories and sellers also paid fees at the "investment conference", and even if they want to get their money back later, the amount they get is necessarily discounted. The other party's contract terms are meticulous, and even if the police are called, their behavior is difficult to be identified as fraud, and is more likely to be classified as an economic dispute.

Regarding the situation where external companies and individuals charge merchants fees by recommending TEMU, holding sharing sessions and investment promotion meetings in the name of TEMU, etc., the TEMU platform officially explained and reminded:

1. Pinduoduo cross-border e-commerce store opening fee is 0 yuan, and merchants do not need to pay any entry fees

2. All third parties that charge merchant fees in the name of Pinduoduo have nothing to do with Pinduoduo

3. Merchants can open a store according to the official entry link. Merchants who meet the platform entry requirements will have platform business contacts.

4. Merchants can speed up the review by filling in the business situation according to the official questionnaire

5. If you are charged merchant fees, please report to the email address: lianzheng@pinduoduo.com

The link to Temu’s official website is https://kuajing.pinduoduo.com/login/register, and the login page is as follows:

As the number of sellers continues to increase, the categories on Pinduoduo have become more detailed. In the sports and outdoor categories, there is a large demand for investment in products such as fitness and training supplies, yoga supplies, hunting and shooting, winter operations, and sports medicine. Missing products such as hot-selling products and ski supplies can also be given priority for warehousing approval.

Cross-border sellers are eager to try Temu because they are optimistic about its future prospects. An industry insider said, "I have no doubt that Temu will become a hot APP in the Chinese community in the future. It is changing consumers' perceptions in a completely new way."

Temu entered the US market with low prices and developed at an amazing speed

Recently, Temu insiders revealed that the company will use the Christmas category as a starting point to capture the entire US market in the first Christmas season! The way to capture the market is still its usual low-price strategy.

Now Temu seems to have entered a "battle" state. On its website, there are free shipping Christmas clothes for $0.34, many styles of Christmas hats for less than $1, and various Christmas decorations and Christmas gifts for less than $1...

An Amazon seller said that Temu is targeting Amazon's Christmas category, which will have a great impact on low-priced products with no technical barriers. Peers said that it is too easy to clear inventory of low-end products through price wars, and there is no profit at all in the end. Sellers sighed: "It's too aggressive, a dimensionality reduction attack! This is basically a loss-making subsidy, purely a welfare for American consumers."

It is understood that during the Christmas season, Temu will sprint into this category regardless of cost. The company's strategy is to use small commodities in this category as an entry point to obtain hundreds of millions of downloads in the United States. This time, Temu's approach is very costly and ambitious!

Temu is also determined to win the big online shopping promotion days, Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday, and directly offers discounts of "70%-90% OFF", which shows its ambition to seize the US market.

For consumers, Temu's approach is something they like. Vivian, a foreign user , ordered 13 items on Temu , and after using a 20% discount coupon, she spent less than $100. She didn't expect Temu's pricing to be so low. After using Temu's 30% discount across the entire network, she only spent $11.18 to buy 5 items: a tea strainer, a charging cable, a pet feeding bowl set, a cat toy set, and a quick-drying beach towel.

"When I say cheap, I mean the price, not the items!" one user recently gave Temu a five-star rating on the review site , adding that he really couldn't believe how cheap everything was !

“ Temu is the kind of app you open when you want to buy something because it’s so cheap , the products are so well curated, and the benchmark quality is so high, ” tweeted a partner at venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz .

As inflation rises , putting pressure on many American household budgets, more consumers are expected to place orders on Temu, which also says it can balance quality and price because it can rely on the vast network of manufacturers and logistics partners built by Pinduoduo .

While implementing the low-price strategy, Temu also simultaneously launched high-profile publicity in the United States.

According to Meta, Temu has run more than 1,000 ads on its platform since September (compared to a few dozen for Shein and other similar apps). On the app store side, Temu’s iOS ads are primarily targeted at consumers in the U.S. and Canada, with Android ads running in seven other countries.

Thanks to its low price and advertising, Temu won its first launch in the United States. After its launch on September 1, Temu expanded rapidly in North America. It became the number one shopping app in the Google Play Store in terms of daily downloads just 17 days after its launch. On October 18, it surpassed Amazon Shopping to top the list of free shopping apps in the US App Store.

Currently, Temu has been on the top of the U.S. App Store shopping download rankings for more than a week. It took Temu just over a month to become the number one app in terms of downloads, which is really impressive!

Sellers hit by Temu surge

After gaining a certain degree of popularity, some American consumers began to gradually shift to Temu for shopping, and more cross-border sellers felt the impact from Temu.

Many Amazon sellers have reported that after seeing Temu’s prices and all-round marketing model, they immediately understood the reason for their declining orders , and they expressed varying degrees of concern. One seller joked: “How can there be orders? Temu’s prices are unmatched on cross-border platforms, and even Wish shook its head when it saw them . ”

In the opinion of an industry insider, Temu has already gone abroad and is changing the perception of overseas consumers in a very scary way. It can be seen from the number of downloads of its APP that American consumers say no but their bodies are very honest. When they get used to such prices, it is difficult for them to pay for more expensive products on Amazon or other similar platforms.

This made a lot of Amazon sellers sit up and take notice! After feeling the impact of Temu, they began to think about how to avoid being impacted.

An old seller in the industry said that in the future, they will definitely not be able to beat Temu by selling low-priced products, and what they must do is to upgrade their supply chain and products. This directly makes many sellers go from experience mode to difficult mode. If they cannot solve these problems, they are destined to be eliminated by the market. At that time, the market will definitely be reshuffled, and new opportunities will be created accordingly.

Amazon sellers are facing the impact of Temu's low prices on the one hand, and the tightening of Amazon's policies on the other hand, which has led some sellers to consider investing in Temu.

Last week, Amazon's new policy caused a lot of complaints from sellers. The platform informed sellers that the sales commission and logistics fees of Amazon.com would increase across the board. Amazon said that these fee changes were lower than the fee changes announced by other logistics providers so far, but many sellers still could not accept it.

It is understood that this year, sellers have already accepted multiple rounds of price increases for delivery fees, storage fees, advertising fees, etc. With Amazon's operating costs rising, these sellers may have had enough of the platform's "manipulation", or perhaps they saw hope in new platforms, and they are eager to try, trying to add a sales channel by settling in Temu and share Amazon's operating risks.

One seller vowed that he had originally planned to ship goods to Amazon, but now he was allocating them to Temu , and he must seize the opportunity to make money on this platform.

It just so happens that at this time, Temu is also increasing its product supply and actively recruiting more sellers to join. The threshold for official recruitment channels is not high.

Some sellers also reported that Temu registration is simple, and you only need to review your information, pay a deposit, and send the product to the domestic team for confirmation. One seller personally experienced this and registered on Temu as an individual , and passed the review that evening .

As an industry insider said, judging from the current market, it will become more difficult for cross-border sellers in the future. Joining Temu is based on the following two considerations.

The first is the low price impact of the Temu platform on Amazon. Temu will divert a large amount of traffic from Amazon, and the competition among Amazon sellers will become more intense. In addition, Amazon's growth is also slowing down, and the platform itself is laying off employees, which will eventually affect sellers' warehousing, delivery, buyer experience, etc.

The second is the competition between sellers and factories on the Temu platform. Sellers cannot compete with factories in terms of price. Sellers on Temu do not have pricing power, and the platform will give priority to merchants with lower prices. I wonder if more sellers will be given opportunities in the future.

However, some sellers have different views. They believe that cross-border peers should not follow blindly, but should proceed from their own actual situation. Temu is indeed very popular recently. From a short-term perspective, the number of products on the platform is not rich enough. It’s just that the subsidies for users are relatively large at present, and with the blessing of traffic during the Christmas season, it is normal for many suppliers to have a surge in orders. Some factories with price advantages and sellers who used to do self-delivery may want to try it.

However, Temu is not suitable for everyone. Some Amazon vertical sellers and DTC independent station sellers may not be suitable for this . Although there are bonuses ahead, sellers should think more about whether they have advantages and should not covet benefits that do not match their own abilities. No e-commerce platform can survive for a long time by relying on low prices. In the end, it still has to return to brand, product and supply chain.

As a cross-border seller, you must make a rational analysis. Temu impacts more homogeneous, low-end price sellers, and the platform’s low-price subsidies may have a certain periodicity. In the future, the way out for cross-border sellers will not always be low prices, but product and brand value.

Temu

Head sales