BOISE, Idaho — Amazon dominates online shopping in the U.S. with more than half of all American households holding a Prime membership. But a new contender, called Temu, is making a big push to lure shoppers away with the promise of ultra-low prices.
Temu means “Team Up, Price Down.” The idea is the more people that buy an item, the more the manufacturer will produce, which brings the price down for everyone.
Temu’s parent company, PDD Holdings, is a Shanghai-based commerce group with immense global sourcing and supply chain capabilities. It can negotiate for better prices with suppliers and pass those savings on to consumers. Plus, there are many, many brands selling their items on Temu, and they’re all competing with one another to offer the lowest prices. Most of the goods are shipped to consumers directly from China.
Industry experts have found that this marketplace is legitimate and safe. It accepts secure payment methods like PayPal and ApplePay and delivers the goods (for the most part). However, like many online retail sites, it simply acts as a go-between that allows sellers to connect to customers, so there’s no guarantee of quality — although Temu does have protections in place if this happens.
Dale Dixon, Chief Innovation Officer at the Better Business Bureau, says the Temu app is one of the most popular apps right now; number three on Apple and number two on Google devices, and says customer ratings and reviews look pretty good as well.
"The average of those 700-plus customer reviews on Temu is two-point-five,” Dixon said. “We're hearing more than 600 complaints just in the last year since Temu hit the marketplace. Most of those complaints are dealing with quality and delivery issues."
That's understandable since, as so many have become accustomed to that two-day Prime delivery, Temu's shipping can take anywhere from 7-15 days because they’re coming from a variety of countries from around the world.
But one thing that certainly isn't slow on their end, Dixon adds, is how fast they are to inundate you with emails and push alerts as soon as you sign up.
"Aggressive marketing is how you get to that number two, number three spot on the play store and the Apple Store. With aggressive marketing and having people talk about it, just like this!"
With these issues, as well as questions about their product quality, and how and where their products are made, the BBB recommends you treat Temu like you would any other website you're not 100% familiar with and trust.
"Proceed with caution,” advises Dixon, “so do your research ahead of time, and then play a little Sherlock Holmes and you can learn more about the company as you do this and see what other people are saying around the country, around the world about this."
