With explosive orders and fines, where will Temu semi-custodial sellers go?

Unlike the previous full-hosting model, the advantage of semi-hosting is that it improves logistics efficiency, which is good news for sellers with overseas warehouses.

Recently, a seller service provider said: "It's really popular! In more than a month, thousands of sellers have come to consult, and we can't reply to them all!"

Some industry insiders believe that the semi-hosting model may be a new trend in the future, and there may be a wave of traffic peaks in the next few months, so those sellers who enter the market early will enjoy this wave of traffic dividends.

But to understand the real situation, we need to listen to the feedback from the sellers who have already settled in.

Fully managed sellers are "killed" by semi-managed sellers, and sales plummet

According to the official introduction, in the semi-hosted model, merchants need to be responsible for supply, logistics warehousing, advertising, sales, etc. But whether it is full or semi-hosted, the pricing power of the product is still in the hands of Temu.

Although Temu still does not have the power to set prices, it does give sellers more room to play. However, more room for play also means that Temu will make more demands on sellers.

At present, delivery timeliness is an important indicator for Temu to evaluate semi-hosted sellers. It is understood that sellers need to set the delivery timeliness and free shipping area in the Temu background. In terms of timeliness options, the platform only provides two options: "shipping within 1 working day" and "shipping within 2 working days", and the delivery timeliness within the delivery area is "2 to 5 working days".

This will undoubtedly be a test for many sellers, and this is also a way for Temu to screen seller qualifications.

In addition to logistics timeliness, Temu also has pricing requirements for semi-hosted sellers. One seller reported that he shipped the product after successfully verifying the price at the beginning, but was suddenly asked to reduce the price after selling just a few dozen units. The seller did not agree, and the product was removed from the shelves the next day.

After consulting the buyer, the reply I got was that they found the same product cheaper on Amazon, but this answer was obviously unacceptable. Fortunately, the seller still has TikTok and Amazon stores, so the goods he sent can still be sold, which is a blessing in disguise.

In addition, Temu’s strict price verification requirements for semi-managed sellers have even affected the fully managed sellers on the platform. Recently, some sellers complained that their products have also been affected since the influx of semi-managed sellers.

According to the seller, his product was originally number one in the vertical category. However, he recently saw a semi-hosted product on the front end that was priced only half of his own. No wonder his sales have been so bad recently.

I really didn't expect that Temu not only took over other platforms, but also did not let go of the sellers on its own platform.

However, in addition to the price squeeze, Temu semi-hosted sellers seem to have encountered other troubles.

Semi-managed sellers face refund and fine issues

In the past month, a large number of Temu sellers have complained on social media about consumers requesting only a refund.

Some sellers have found that on platforms such as Youtube, Facebook and Instagram, there are a large number of bloggers teaching people to make money through Temu by simply refunding the money, and the success rate is said to be as high as 95%.

Unlike full-hosting, semi-hosting sellers need to be responsible for the final shipping cost. Taking this seller’s own situation as an example, the lowest cost is 4-5 dollars per order, and the cost of refund alone becomes: the cost of goods + the first-leg cost + the final-leg cost.

Generally speaking, the gross profit of most Temu sellers is less than $5. According to Temu seller rules, if consumers choose to refund or return the goods for various reasons, the shipping fee under the order will also be deducted from the merchant account. Sellers can't afford this.

In addition to these costs, some netizens reminded that labor costs should also be taken into account, and the sellers said they could not bear it any longer.

After dealing with consumers' behavior of taking advantage of the platform, the platform also brought news that the sellers would be fined three times the amount.

According to the latest updated after-sales rules of Temu's semi-hosted backend, for products with quality problems, Temu officials have the right to impose a fine of three times the total value of the goods on merchants.

According to feedback from many sellers, they have recently begun to feel the power of Temu's fines. One of the sellers said that he has been fined many times due to timeliness issues. Temu stipulates that orders must be delivered to customers within 7 days (customers sign for them), but the actual situation is that even if the seller ships the goods on the first day, it is difficult for consumers to sign for them within 7 days. If the time limit is exceeded, each order will be fined 40 yuan/5 US dollars, but the profit is only 10 yuan.

In addition, out-of-stock goods, false shipments, fraudulent shipments, illegal logistics and freight terms, and product quality problems will all result in corresponding fines.

Chat records of sellers showed that one seller was fined 66,000 yuan in 14 days, a total of 200,000 yuan, while another seller was deducted 37,000 yuan within a month.

Although there are constant complaints, semi-custody is Temu’s most popular project at present, and there are definitely sellers who have benefited from the traffic dividend.

Semi-managed sellers receive more traffic, and excellent buyers also come to help

Recently, a seller opened the Temu front desk and found that most of the products were from semi-hosted merchants, and there were rarely any fully-hosted sellers. This shows how much Temu's traffic is biased towards semi-hosted merchants.

According to this seller, his inventory that had been unsaleable on Amazon for a long time is now slowly being cleared out through Temu. Is it true that he is about to become extremely rich?

Some semi-hosted sellers have posted their backend data, showing that they sold over 100,000 yuan in one month after opening their store. There are countless sellers who have posted their order volume.

This is obviously inseparable from the support of the platform. A Temu seller said that the buyer with whom he had been cooperating smoothly suddenly said recently that he would hand over the job to another buyer, which made the seller reluctant to let go. After all, it is not easy to have a buyer who gets along well with him.

Some netizens speculated that this buyer might have been transferred to the semi-managed business, as many excellent buyers have been transferred there to help recently.

With the support of traffic in the early stage, I believe that many sellers are looking forward to this overwhelming wealth. However, some sellers calmly analyzed that if the products and prices are the same, the semi-managed sellers have to compete on who has more advantages in the final freight and warehousing. In addition, delivery time is also a problem that many sellers need to solve.

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