It’s settled! Pinduoduo’s cross-border platform Temu will go on sale on September 1

It was previously reported that the cross-border e-commerce platform that Pinduoduo is preparing is expected to be launched in mid-September, with the first stop being the United States. According to the latest news, the platform is called Temu and the launch time may be advanced to early September.

Last week, the first batch of sellers submitted their applications for entry. This week, in addition to the original corporate stores, the platform also added the option of "individual business owners". Currently, some accounts have been approved and started to list products.

The news of Pinduoduo's overseas expansion has spread overseas. Foreign media have been discussing whether Pinduoduo's move will be successful and whether it will have an impact on old e-commerce platforms such as Amazon.

Temu platform will be available for sale on September 1st

The Merchant Entry Guide provided by the business recruitment staff shows that the name of Pinduoduo's cross-border platform is Temu. The recruitment staff informed that the first phase of Duoduo's cross-border e-commerce will be launched on September 1st. "The platform will be open for sale on September 1st, and the styles applied for online must be in stock on September 1st."

At present, the types of stores open to Pinduoduo's cross-border platform include personal stores and ordinary stores in corporate stores, and other types such as specialty stores are not open yet. The settlement process is not complicated. Merchants can gradually complete the settlement information after registering an account, submit it after filling it out, and wait for the settlement information to be reviewed.

It should be noted that the platform has some standard requirements for filling in store names: store names, product names, and logos must be in English; store names of non-flagship stores must not use "official" or other words with similar meanings; store names must not contain telephone numbers, email addresses, website addresses, QR codes, instant messaging tools, or other contact information (such as QQ numbers, WeChat accounts, etc.).

Judging from the current feedback, the review situations of each company are different: some sellers’ entry information has been rejected, and the store names submitted after the rejection can no longer be used; the review of the invitation code filled in when entering the company is faster, and some people still have no progress after a week of review. Seeing that the platform is about to start selling, they can’t help but urge the official to speed up the review.

After the entry review is passed, check "North America Station-Temu Platform" to apply for joining. A short review of about 30 seconds will appear. After the review is passed, enter the Temu Seller Center, read and check to agree to the "Seller Service Agreement". After the successful entry, you can officially use the relevant functions of the Temu Seller Center and upload products. A seller posted a screenshot of the store background, as follows:

Yesterday, when a clothing seller was creating a size chart in the background, an error message " Exception occurred while creating the size chart template " appeared on the page . After multiple attempts, the error message was still not resolved. In response, the merchant said that there were many people uploading products in the background, so they needed to exit and refresh the page to try again.

For Temu, some sellers were worried about returns or fines. Now some sellers have learned from the investment promotion staff that the platform will be responsible for after-sales issues if they are not quality issues, but if there are quality issues with the product, the platform will impose a five-fold fine on the merchant. This has caused a lot of complaints from sellers.

In addition, when communicating with sellers, the editor found that although they have already applied for stores, some sellers still have only a vague understanding of the operating model of Pinduoduo's cross-border platform.

The business model of Pinduoduo’s cross-border platform

On the Temu platform, sellers act as suppliers and have no pricing power. The platform sets prices and then settles with sellers at the supply price. This is completely different from the business model of third-party sellers on platforms such as Amazon.

According to the business introduction of Duoduo Cross-border, in the settlement stage, the seller applies to open a store in the background → settle in for 0 yuan → provide the store name + store ID to the buyer → the buyer reviews the store → bind the bank card → sign the Duoduo Cross-border Agreement → contact the storekeeper to open the cross-border background → log in to the Duoduo Cross-border background → submit high-quality goods → the buyer reviews the product/inventory, and finally the seller delivers the goods to the warehouse.

The online sales process is as follows: after the seller submits the product, the buyer selects the product, the seller sends the sample, Pinduoduo calculates the cost price, then determines the inventory and prepares the stock, and then puts it online for sale.

After understanding this model, many sellers suddenly found it boring.

Pinduoduo is going global by imitating SHEIN. In the merchant recruitment stage, Pinduoduo Cross-border paid great attention to SHEIN's suppliers. After being tempered by SHEIN, the supply mechanism of these manufacturers has become very mature, and they can provide the platform with selected products that may be hot-selling and respond quickly to supply. Therefore, in addition to targeted invitations, in the entry selection, some investment promotion personnel also clearly stated that merchants who are engaged in SHEIN's corresponding categories and have no less than 10 products on sale can communicate with them individually.

Judging from the investment information, Pinduoduo prefers factory-type sellers, and preferably those with experience in supplying the North American market, which is also the main supplier group of SHEIN. Among the sellers who have applied for entry, many are trading sellers and do not have much competitive advantage in the supply chain.

Even so, they are still willing to grab a spot first and then wait and see if there are any business opportunities.

Arm wrestling with Amazon?

Pinduoduo is a domestic e-commerce giant. In addition, its overseas competitor SHEIN is well-known in the United States, so its entry into the US market has also attracted a wave of attention overseas.

The Guardian reports that Chinese behemoth Pinduoduo is set to take on Amazon in the US. “Americans addicted to Amazon may soon be drawn to a Chinese tech giant that most have never heard of. Pinduoduo, which has a reputation for offering goods at rock-bottom prices, plans to expand its operations to the US next month . ”

It is not just the buyers who are attracted. At least from the current situation, the 0-cost entry offered by Pinduoduo has attracted many sellers. In addition, Temu has the potential to become bigger and stronger. Sellers from cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and even the domestic e-commerce market have already entered the market.

In the domestic technology and Internet industry , e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and JD.com have achieved success in the Southeast Asian and Latin American markets. SHEIN and ByteDance have also occupied a considerable market share overseas. This has inspired Pinduoduo. When the domestic market growth slowed down, it began to turn to overseas to seek new growth points.

Pinduoduo has something in common with SHEIN. "Like SHEIN, Pinduoduo has mastered the supply advantage and is able to deliver products to customers incredibly cheaply and at low cost. I think this will really become part of their strategy to come to the United States," said JS Tan, a graduate student at MIT.

In addition, some people are worried that Pinduoduo's overseas business will spread the "crazy overtime" style of domestic companies, causing internal competition.

“I think this is definitely not a good thing for American tech workers,” said Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch . “There is no way for American companies to compete with Pinduoduo in terms of manufacturing costs. If Pinduoduo succeeds, it will bring Chinese-style labor practices to the United States. ”

North America

Pinduoduo

Cross-border e-commerce