Temu has been known as the “greenback retailer of on-line procuring.” What’s all of it about? And is it protected to buy there?
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — The story was initially printed in November 2023.
In simply days, the vacation procuring blitz begins with Black Friday. Nonetheless, a procuring app known as Temu has already tempted cut price customers for months now.
The net retailer sells absolutely anything you may consider, at costs as much as 75% lower than what you’d pay on different websites.
Since its debut only one yr in the past, Temu has develop into essentially the most downloaded free app in each the Apple and Google Play shops. It has skyrocketed previous each retail big’s apps, together with Goal, Walmart and even Amazon.
“You possibly can hardly open your cellphone with out seeing a Temu pop-up,” College of Minnesota Carlson Faculty of Administration advertising professor George John mentioned.
John mentioned the astronomical rise of Temu may very well be attributed to the corporate’s all-in method on nonstop advertising.
“They have been on this extremely aggressive marketing campaign to obtain the app,” John mentioned. “The perfect guess I’ve is that they spent 100s of thousands and thousands, if not billions, on promoting. What they’re betting on is, when you obtain the app, you get procuring/leisure state of mind and use it as a distraction.”
So, in a time of historic inflation and provide chain points the place many retailers have turned to marking issues up, how can Temu be promoting all this stuff for therefore low cost?
John make clear a couple of items of the puzzle.
“While you’re transport immediately from China to the U.S., there are a few loopholes,” John mentioned. “Should you ship one thing lower than 800 bucks, you do not have customs obligation to pay. I might be completely shocked to find they’re getting cash now. They do not count on to make cash now, they’re anticipating over the long term, 30 million folks within the U.S. to be ‘shoppetainment’ folks.”
Now, the large query: Are these merchandise any good?
We ordered a number of merchandise from Temu and Amazon that had been related, if not the identical, to match.
Many objects did look related at first look, however ended up having high quality and value variations. Temu objects had been usually considerably cheaper, however some objects, like a flower vase meant to appear like a e book, got here with a typo.
Nonetheless, different objects like pizza cutters had been seemingly the identical, besides the Amazon pizza cutter got here with a branded emblem.
Temu advertises free transport and free returns, similar to Amazon does. Nonetheless, on the Better Business Bureau’s website, lots of the complaints in opposition to Temu contain objects that had been considerably delayed or not having arrived in any respect.
Additionally upon nearer inspection, we discovered each pizza cutter listings used the very same pictures. We reached out to Temu for a response about this, as it might elevate copyright considerations.
The corporate’s spokesperson agreed to speak however requested to stay unnamed and off-the-record. She did, nonetheless, ship a written assertion that reads partly:
“Temu has confronted roughly 10 lawsuits stemming from (mental property rights) within the U.S… We have instituted rigorous measures and are proactive in addressing and combating every kind of potential infringements.”
WATCH: We ordered and examined a number of of Temu’s cheapest items:
Cybersecurity considerations
Not one of the transport trivia could matter to a client seeking to fill their time with on-line procuring. Nonetheless, what issues is what the buyer could be giving up in alternate for the offers.
Temu has direct ties to China. It is owned by “PDD Holdings Inc.,” headquartered in Shanghai. You do not have to look too laborious to search out stories that accuse the retailer of tracking everything from your location to your social media profiles.
A whole lot of different retailers do this as effectively, however stories present “PDD Holdings” takes it a step additional by allegedly using malicious codes to bypass your cellphone’s safety settings, and typically changing them without your consent.
All of this, to be able to monitor the consumer’s each digital transfer — from the apps they’re utilizing to their private textual content messages.
“Every class of knowledge… like monetary and utilization information… is critical to make the buyer procuring expertise higher,” the corporate spokesperson informed KARE 11.
They added the info they accumulate is “widespread trade follow.”
Again in June, the House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said its investigation into merchandise supplied to American customers from Chinese language retailers like Temu “may very well be made with pressured labor in China,” which is one other side customers would possibly need to take into account when procuring by Temu.
“Many people do not assume an excessive amount of about it or we simply do not know the reality,” professor John mentioned. “I might not use my common bank card on any of those sketchy web sites. I might use a present card. That means, you are protected in case one thing occurs. In case there is a information breach and stuff like that, your core information is just not compromised.”
In the long run, Temu did have some offers. Nonetheless, a few of them ended up being junk. Whereas Temu’s slogan is “Store like a billionaire,” customers would possibly need to accomplish that — at their very own danger.
