The Chinese online marketplace Temu has been active in Germany since spring 2023. Hundreds of thousands now shop there. Now Temu is also taking on the big shopping portals.
After a year and a half, the Chinese shopping portal Temu is already one of the largest online retailers in Germany. Measured by the number of orders, Temu landed in sixth place among the top online retailers in the first half of 2024. This emerges from a study by Consumer Panel Services GfK, which is part of the opinion research institute YouGov. The list is topped by Amazon, eBay and Otto, followed by Zalando and Kaufland.
From January to June, around 1.3 million people in Germany shopped at Temu. The company has been active in this country since April 2023. Temu is a marketplace – a portal where people can buy things from more than one company. The fashion retailer Shein, which was founded in China and is now based in Singapore, lands in 19th place in the order ranking, with around 900,000 people shopping there.
Expert: Temu and Shein are likely to become even more popular
GfK market researcher Christian Koch assumes that the two online retailers from Asia will become even more popular in the coming years: “The shopping portals benefit from the competitive conditions that are favorable for them and manage to inspire customers with their style of shopping,” said Koch. In addition, both are very present in advertising.
However, the portals’ offerings differ. According to the GfK study, customers at Shein find almost exclusively fashion. Temu, on the other hand, has a broader product range. What both providers have in common is that they offer numerous items at reasonable prices – and have thus benefited from customers’ recent strong price focus.
The entire industry, however, is suffering from the poor consumer sentiment in the country. After two weak years, 2024 is unlikely to bring an upswing either: According to the German e-commerce and mail order industry association, there was growth in the third quarter. The situation has stabilized. At 55.4 billion euros, revenue from January to September was still 0.4 percent below the value for the same period last year.
Shopping portals from Asia are controversial
Temu and Shein are controversial. Sales representatives, politicians and consumer advocates criticize, among other things, product quality, unfair competition conditions and a lack of controls. The platforms reject such allegations.
The German Trade Association (HDE) wrote a letter to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the end of September. HDE President Alexander von Preen called for direct mail order companies to be more closely monitored and responsible monitoring authorities such as customs to be strengthened.
Source: Stern
