Is Temu The Amazon Killer?

Temu is the second most trafficked ecommerce site in the world.

Ebay is third, AliExpress is fourth.

So, how on earth did Temu have this meteoric rise?

Say hello to Amazon.

Amazon partnered with Temu to ultimately:

Access low priced products that Amazon could trust (instead of random drop shippers sourcing from China and other low cost sources)
Have non-branded items

In doing so, Amazon can now promote brands as a more premium feature (remember brands are selling on their own websites and through high street stores- who are also selling online). Are they gearing towards a higher priced/ brand focused store?

This is from Amazon. See the premium brands link?

What is known is that Amazon has created an environment where people trust Amazon. Amazon delivers, is quick, cool return policy, easy check out. They make buying simple and seem to back what they sell.

So if you found a product, regardless of brand, then more than likely you will buy because of:

reviews
price
stars

Just like the Reviews, Stars and Sales suggests ;)

So you are comfortable buying most products through Amazon as long as the creator puts some effort into making sure the product looks like it is like the sales picture and doesn't fall apart.

Temu teaming up with Amazon also causes...

Now this comes back to Disney and Pixar. it is a well known story. Disney was the initial distributor of Pixars movies and when Toy Story first appeared, Pixar had a hit and it showed that computer animation could make movies. Disney, locked in a deal with Pixar has now created a rival to which after the deal Pixar could do their own thing and Disney would have a problem. Disney realised this and renegotiated the deal with Pixar and Pixar stayed at Disney. Steve Jobs did the deal.

Temu has been helped by Amazon to help Amazon. Now Amazon is not stoopid but you have to ask yourself. Why did they help another ecommerce site get so big?

Temu doesn't look like Amazon now, but Amazon didn't look like this tens of years ago when it first started.

Amazons response? Sell products at a lower price, probably consumables and well turnover products (like towels and sheets). But:

#Amazon’s strategy to compete with #Temu? Lower prices by sourcing directly. But how low can they go? 🤔 What’s the impact on #AmazonSellers? Is "cheap" the right move, or just for consumables? #Ecommerce #RetailTrends #AmazonVsTemu
— Dominic (@MyJasonera) October 23, 2024

A couple of things of what does Temu need to do now?

Temu has to do what Amazon did and that is to build trust. Without that people perception of their goods (rightly or wrongly) is going to be marred with the companies that they sell from. So if twe have a look at the Temu website we see a lot of things:

There is a lot of things. Maybe too much. They need me to look around more, they need me to buy something then they can have data to recommend products. They need to differentiate between lightning deals and unbeatable deals. Unbeatable means limited stock. Lightning is limited time. Initially the other way would be better. Limited Stock- unbeatable deals. Limited Time Only- the lightning deals
When you scroll down. You lose the buttons and the search function. Amazon has it to the side which can follow you. Also on the other side Amazon has payment
When you click on something. There is a lot of information. Which is nice, but it is a lot and doesn't seem to be organised right:

Buy now. Would love a buy now button rather than going through a shopping cart. remember that Amazon has trained people to buy now- its an impulse buy.
Scrolls. Like all the different scrolly items under the products like- best seller, just bought, new arrival. Unsure about the use of "established 1 year ago" unsure if we need that
Trees. Promote the tree planting initiative a little more (one front page maybe 3 million trees planted so far! With a counter?
It needs to link up with delivery services. This doesn't make sense, but I understand why it is there- to give a rough outline of how long it takes to get to you:

Those percentages are way too much of a range. Also those are many companies that ship. Can't you choose one? However, when searching online, if the shipping goes over a certain time you get a voucher. Which is a nice touch.

More reasons why Temu could be the Amazon killer

It has an affiliate section. Which has commissions from 5-20%. It also has bonuses when you join or sell certain amounts. If Amazon keeps on tweaking its affiliate structure to the degradation of affiliates then Amazon loses some of its sales force. Does it care now? Probably not, but how about if the sales force goes over to Temu and gives them a super boost?

#Temu's affiliate program offers 5-20% commissions. With #Amazon tweaking its own affiliate model, could we see a shift in the sales force? A super boost for Temu if affiliates switch sides. 💼📈 #AffiliateMarketing #EcommerceBattle #Temu
— Dominic (@MyJasonera) October 23, 2024

It is heavily promoting the app. This then tries to push you away from going online and subconsciously going towards Amazon.

Use social more. Temu, being the second most trafficked ecommerce website in the world has how many subs on Youtube? 9 million? More? Nope, 341k :)

5.9 million subs on Facebook
5.7 million followers on Insta
94k followers on X.com
2.4 million on TikTok
Play Store- for their app? 100 million+ downloads

Maybe Youtube could be where they explain the company? Discuss with providers and customers, interviews etc. However I believe Youtube is not available in China but as they build maybe the amount of Youtube videos and subs increase? But when you go through their Facebook account there are tons of short product videos. But. If their audience is on TikTok then is not being on Youtube actually matter?

But it is really going for the social aspect. Oddly enough didn't see Pinterest which we would have thought would be a good tie in with visual products.

The cool idea? They give out discount codes on their social platforms

Then you have to ask.

What happens if they buy out Shopify or even AliExpress? Now we would have a huge ecommerce company. Doesn't seem a too much of a long shot idea though. And you can see this happening. To buy up a company that has selling and distribution infrastructure already in place.

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