Hong Kong
CNN
—
A brand new on-line buying platform linked to certainly one of China’s prime retailers has rapidly turn into probably the most downloaded app in the USA, surpassing Amazon and Walmart. Now it’s seeking to capitalize from an look on America’s largest stage.
Temu, a Boston-based on-line retailer that shares the identical proprietor as Chinese language social commerce big Pinduoduo, made its Tremendous Bowl debut on Sunday.
Temu, which runs an internet superstore for just about every thing — from house items to attire to electronics — unveiled a industrial through the sport that inspired customers to “store like a billionaire.”
The pitch? You don’t need to be one.
“Via the most important stage potential, we wish to share with our customers that they will store with a way of freedom due to the worth we provide,” a Temu spokesperson informed CNN in a press release.
The 30-second spot reveals the corporate’s proposition to customers: Really feel such as you’re splurging by shopping for a number of stuff cheaply. A woman’s swimsuit on Temu prices simply $6.50, whereas a pair of wireless earphones is priced at $8.50. An eyebrow trimmer prices 90 cents.
These surprisingly low costs — by Western requirements, at the very least — have drawn comparisons to Shein, the Chinese fast fashion upstart that additionally gives a wide array of cheap clothes and residential items, and has made important inroads into markets together with the USA.
Shein is taken into account certainly one of Temu’s opponents, together with US-based low cost retailer Want and Alibaba’s AliExpress, in keeping with Coresight Analysis.
Temu, pronounced “tee-moo,” was launched final yr by PDD, its US-listed guardian firm previously often known as Pinduoduo. The corporate formally changed its name simply this month.
PDD’s subsidiary Pinduoduo is certainly one of China’s hottest e-commerce platforms with roughly 900 million customers. It made its name with a group-buying enterprise mannequin, permitting individuals to save cash by enlisting buddies to purchase the identical merchandise in bulk.
On its website, Temu says it makes use of its guardian firm’s “huge and deep community … constructed over time to supply a variety of inexpensive high quality merchandise.”
Since its rollout in September, the appliance has been downloaded 24 million occasions, racking up greater than 11 million month-to-month energetic customers, in keeping with Sensor Tower.
Within the fourth quarter of final yr, US app installations for Temu exceeded these for Amazon
(AMZN), Walmart
(WMT) and Goal
(TGT), in keeping with Abe Yousef, a senior insights analyst on the analytics agency Sensor Tower.
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“Temu soared to the highest of each US app retailer charts in November, the place the app nonetheless holds the highest place now,” he informed CNN, referring to iOS and Android cellular app shops.
Yousef mentioned the corporate had been notably profitable at buying new customers by providing extraordinarily low costs and in-app flash offers, resembling 89% off sure objects.
The agency is already eyeing new territory. This month, Temu mentioned on Twitter that it plans to expand to Canada.
Michael Felice, an affiliate accomplice at administration consulting agency Kearney, mentioned Temu stood out just by promoting merchandise with out excessive markups.
“Temu may be exposing a white house out there whereby manufacturers have been producing at excessive low price, and alongside the worth chain there’s been a lot bloated price handed on for margin,” he informed CNN.
“That mentioned, American customers won’t even be prepared to simply accept a few of these value factors … There’s all the time the query, ‘is it too low cost to be good?’”
Deborah Weinswig, CEO of Coresight Analysis, has cautioned that it might be too early to inform whether or not Temu will have the ability to preserve these extraordinarily low costs, free transport and different perks.
“Temu goals to proceed to experiment in advertising and choices, which is feasible due to its resource-rich guardian firm,” she wrote in a report.
Its launch, she mentioned, “comes at an opportune second, as customers seek for worth amid still-elevated inflation and a level of financial uncertainty.”
