Temu's new rules spark public outrage, sellers put up banners to protest

Recently, a new feature released by Temu has once again aroused heated discussions among sellers. It is understood that in order to carry out the platform's low-price strategy to the end, Temu has specially invented a new concept called reporting high price rate.

According to feedback from many sellers, when they logged into the backend, they suddenly found a new section on the platform, called the performance of declared prices in the past 30 days, which also displayed two important data: the rate of high declared prices and the amount of high declared prices.

What does it actually mean to declare a high rate?

From the literal meaning, the declared price refers to the price quoted by the seller when supplying goods to Temu, while the high price rate is not particularly easy to understand. Some industry insiders believe that this is the ratio of the seller's quotation calculated by Temu through an algorithm that is higher than the quotation of the same type of products, but the specific calculation method is still unknown.

According to the platform rules, the 95% high price declaration rate is a red line that sellers cannot touch. If it exceeds this level, they may be forced to reduce their prices. Some sellers predict that if the sellers who exceed 95% reduce their prices, they may push up those sellers who were originally below 95%, and then a "price reduction cycle" may occur.

In addition, some sellers speculate that some large sellers with strong financial strength may choose to maliciously lower prices, thereby "persuading" competitors in the same category who are unable to follow the price cuts, and then monopolizing the category market through this method.

On the other hand, the declared high price amount refers to the difference between the "high-priced SKU" of all the seller's stores and the declared price of similar products, which is then multiplied by the sales volume of the corresponding high-priced SKU to obtain a total amount.

For example, if a seller's price for a certain SKU is considered "too high" by Temu, 5 yuan higher than other similar products. If this SKU has 10 orders, then the declared high price amount is 5 times 10, which is equal to 50 yuan.

According to Temu's pop-up reminder, if the declared high price is too high, many restrictions will be imposed on the seller, including restrictions on new products and withdrawals, etc.

Temu's relevant regulations show that the entity with the lowest supply price rate may be restricted, all the products to be selected in the stores under this entity will be prohibited from being selected, and the order amount will be frozen for 30 days from the date of restriction.

Seeing such "unfair terms" targeting sellers, many sellers couldn't help but complain.

"It's true that I earn money and spend it, and I want to take it home once I part."

"The price is so low now that our factory can barely make it. Do you want to lower the price further? I don't know which sellers will stay in the future."

“I am ready to give up this platform. This new rule does not intend to leave any way for sellers to survive. Not only will there be no profit, but there is also the possibility of limiting cash withdrawals. It’s too overbearing!”

To address this issue, Temu’s solution for sellers is to actively follow prices and maintain the price advantage of new products, so as to obtain exemption rights for the next 30 days.

However, many sellers said that "getting 30-day exemption benefits with one click" may be a "trap."

The employee was late and caused the price to drop with one click, and the boss was ready to call the police

According to the platform rules, as long as the seller clicks the "Get exemption benefits for the next 30 days with one click" button , it means that he agrees to immediately reduce the prices of those "high-priced SKUs", and the price reduction may exceed the seller's ability to bear, and even directly fall below his own cost line.

According to a screenshot of a chat record circulated on a certain social platform, an employee accidentally clicked the "Get exemption benefits for the next 30 days with one click" button, which caused the product price to be automatically reduced and a large number of orders were sold at a loss. The boss said that he was exhausted from the losses and the company was about to lose everything.

For this reason, the employee asked Temu staff whether they could withdraw the operation or help remove the product from the shelves to stop the loss. Because of his operation, the boss was so angry that he was ready to call the police.

Although the authenticity of this screenshot has yet to be verified, based on the guidance of Temu’s pop-up window, sellers find it easy to subconsciously click the “one-click exemption” button without fully understanding the rules . As a result, the product price is automatically reduced without their knowledge.

To avoid such situations from happening on a large scale, after the new regulation was introduced, a Temu buyer urgently posted notices in multiple seller groups, telling sellers not to randomly click on the “all price reductions, because prices cannot be raised back once you click this” button.

But paradoxically, the buyer still gave a so-called "penalty relief" method: check the high-priced goods details in the high-price rate module of the seller's declared price, and then the price of the single product will actually drop below 95% and the penalty will be lifted the next day.

However, some sellers also reported that after they accidentally clicked the button to agree to the price reduction, they immediately contacted the buyer to inform him of the situation. Finally, after unremitting efforts, they were able to adjust the price back.

But not all sellers are so lucky. Many sellers said they contacted buyers many times but received no response. For this reason, some sellers even spontaneously organized a group of sellers who accidentally clicked the "one-click exemption" button, hoping to gather sellers with the same experience to see if they can find a suitable solution.

Faced with this situation, although most sellers are very upset, they are still trying to solve the problem through formal means. However, a group of more extreme sellers decided to go head-to-head with Temu in order to protect their own rights.

A large number of sellers gathered downstairs of Temu headquarters to protest

According to industry insiders, a group of sellers holding banners gathered downstairs of Temu’s Guangzhou headquarters last Sunday. The banners read “Pinduoduo Temu maliciously defrauds merchants” and other words.

Witnesses estimated that there were about 30 sellers gathered downstairs at Temu that day, all wearing white or black T-shirts with slogans such as "Give justice to merchants" printed on them.

According to one of the sellers, “They chose this way of defending their rights out of helplessness, because Temu’s latest “high price reporting rate” new regulations are almost pushing many small and medium-sized sellers to a dead end. ”

What’s more serious is that some sellers have discovered that once they click the “Get exemption benefits with one click” button, all sub-stores associated with that store will also be affected and their prices will be reduced accordingly.

In the opinion of an industry insider, this new rule does have too much impact on sellers and has caused resistance from a large number of sellers . At present, the incident is still fermenting, and the platform may make corresponding adjustments to this new rule in the future. What everyone can do now is to wait and see.

Temu

Seller

Rights Protection