Temu shopping app downloaded 19 million times in the UK

Temu has followed up its success in the U.S. by becoming a hit with shoppers in the United Kingdom, where the app has been downloaded at least 19 million times.

The Chinese e-commerce company, which ships goods directly from factories and warehouses in China at heavily discounted prices, launched in the UK in April 2023. It is currently top of the iPhone free app charts and the UK is now Temu's third biggest market behind the U.S. and Mexico.

Retail experts say that while its low prices have played a big part in its instant success, the company has also come to market with a different strategy, which is proving popular with consumers.

"It's using things like a roulette wheel in terms of discounts, it's a bit more light-hearted than we've seen from many other brands entering the UK market," Nick Carroll, Category Director of Retail Insights at Mintel told CGTN Europe.

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"Also the brand has been really good at utilizing social media," he said. "There's a lot of influencers out there saying have you seen this, I can't believe I got this at that price. It's really helped legitimize the brand and bring it to the attention of a wide base of shoppers."

There were recent accusations in the US and UK that the firm uses forced labour - something Temu vehemently denies. There are also unverified reports that Temu is losing up to $30 per order as it looks to build its customer base.

Critics have drawn comparisons with Wish.com, an American e-commerce site also famous for its low prices. Wish was valued at $22 billion in 2020, two years later that was down to 450 million amid scaled back advertising and growing competition.

"Wish is probably the closest comparison we can have," says Nick Carroll. "It came to market with those low prices and then after a while consumers started to move away from it because they realized maybe the quality of goods wasn't there or they potentially weren't trusting the brand."

"But I think Temu is in a better position. It came to the UK market with strong reviews, strong testimonials from shoppers," he says.

"And obviously it's going to have to work with its suppliers to make sure the quality keeps up because ultimately as people's confidence and their ability to spend increases, they may be tempted to trade up or trade away from the brand. So focusing on that quality is going to be really important going forward."

China is one of the most dominant forces in the cross-border e-commerce market. In December 2023, Temu became the second most visited commerce site in the world in terms of unique visitors that month, which is defined as people visiting the site at least once.

Temu had 467 million unique visitors, joint with Aliexpress and one ahead of fast-fashion site Shein (172 million). Only Amazon (2.6 billion) had more. Total e-commerce trade of Chinese companies outside of China was estimated to be worth around $230 billion in the first three quarters of 2023, 14 percent up on the previous year.

"Chinese cross border e-commerce companies like Temu and Shein are very good at engaging shoppers, not just now but longer term," Nick Carroll, Category Director of Retail Insights at Mintel told CGTN Europe.

"I think a lot of value brands, they look to make a single sale and move on, but these Chinese brands really focus on loyalty programs and engaging shoppers time and time again."

"I think this is helping them to stand out. You can be low-priced in the market, but that also means you have to care for your customers as well. And that's what a lot of Chinese brands are doing very well building for, not just now, but for the longer term.”

Google searches for Temu were up 2850% in 2023 in the United Kingdom compared with the year before and shares in its parent company PDD Holdings are flying on the back of its success. Many analysts are forecasting another successful year for the discount app and its also predicted that the success of Temu and Shein will see other Chinese e-commerce brands enter the UK market going forward.

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