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It is learned that according to data from Similarweb, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Temu's visits to the UK market jumped to 1.19 billion , ranking fourth. Ahead of Temu are Amazon (7.63 billion), Etsy and AliExpress. With its ultimate cost-effectiveness and social fission marketing, Temu, a cross-border e-commerce platform under Pinduoduo, has soared in the global market. It has now topped the APP download lists in many countries and has become one of the most popular e-commerce platforms for overseas consumers. However, it is worth noting that as Temu achieved explosive growth in overseas markets, the number of orders from Temu sellers also began to soar. Under such circumstances, the issue of delivery timeliness of goods has become a major pain point for the platform. In the first month of 2024, warehouse explosion and stock shortage became the first "surprise" that Temu gave to sellers. It is learned that recently, many sellers have revealed that all major Temu warehouses have encountered warehouse overflow problems, and many Temu buyers have issued notices to "support warehouse receipt of goods." ▲ The picture comes from the seller’s disclosure At present, many sellers have run out of stock due to this: "The warehouse is full again. The express delivery signed for on the 17th has not been delivered to the warehouse for half a month. I am out of stock." “I didn’t expect that even after the platform opened for more than a year and the warehouse has been expanding, the warehouse explosion has not been alleviated.” "Even the buyers went to the warehouse to provide support. Hot-selling products were out of stock one after another, and more than a dozen orders were lined up at the warehouse door." It is reported that this is not the first time that Temu has experienced a warehouse explosion. In March last year, Temu's investment manager issued a notice that the warehouse would stop accepting goods due to a warehouse explosion problem. At that time, many sellers also ran out of stock or even removed many popular products due to untimely delivery. It is worth mentioning that during the peak seasons in previous years, Amazon often encountered warehouse overflow problems due to excessive goods. The warehouse overflow problem of Temu this time may be related to the increase in platform traffic during the Spring Festival. First, the 2024 Spring Festival will see the confluence of the three major festivals, creating even greater potential for explosive growth in traffic: According to the calendar of 2024, this year's Spring Festival not only coincides with Valentine's Day, but also with the Super Bowl, which is known as the American Spring Festival Gala. Not only is the festive atmosphere strong, but Temu's ads will also appear again in the Super Bowl, which will further increase the platform's voice. Secondly, Temu also launched the "Spring Festival Open" event in early January: According to the event rules, sellers who sign up for the event will enjoy platform traffic support and post-Chinese New Year inventory priority privileges during the Spring Festival, including access to the Temu platform homepage special area, and the opportunity for products to be selected by advertisements first. Temu sellers who want to participate in this event need to ensure that their inventory is sufficient and not out of stock during the Spring Festival, that is, prepare a large number of stocks in advance. From this point of view, Temu sellers are likely to usher in a wave of traffic impact during this year's Chinese New Year, driving a surge in orders on the platform. However, before that, Temu sellers not only urgently need to solve the distribution problem of warehouse overflow, but the platform's increasingly diverse management methods also cause headaches for many sellers. It is learned that recently, Temu’s mandatory five-fold fine regulation has once again aroused widespread discussion in the cross-border industry. It is understood that since January, Temu has frequently imposed fines, and many Temu sellers have been fined more than 10,000 yuan: "The fine is five times the amount every day. As of the 23rd, I have already been fined 120,000 yuan. I am exhausted." "Not only was there a fine, but a large number of links were also removed from the shelves, and nearly 2,000 stocks were returned." "I was also fined 130,000 this month, saying it was a size issue and the fine was five times the amount." The picture below shows a Temu seller’s record of five times the fine in January , which is “shocking”: ▲ The picture comes from the seller’s disclosure Based on the feedback from sellers, the reason Temu gave for the fines was mostly after-sales compensation , but it did not clearly state the specific standards for the fines. Many sellers did not realize they were fined until after the after-sales compensation was deducted. Based on this, most sellers believe that Temu’s penalty mechanism is not reasonable for sellers: "It's fine if they just refunded the money, but what's the point of imposing a five-fold fine? The platform is taking advantage of the merchants." “I don’t know what the basis for this five-fold fine is. Temu’s audit criteria lack transparency.” It is learned that according to information previously revealed by the industry, Temu's penalty regulations are mainly aimed at sellers' violations, including substandard product quality, delayed delivery, inadequate after-sales service, etc. , but Temu does lack channels for sellers to understand the specific details of the penalty, and has been repeatedly accused by sellers in the industry of "mandatory 5-fold penalty regulations." From the perspective of the platform, Temu is an emerging platform that attracts traffic quickly with low prices. Under the pressure of extremely low prices, it is inevitable that merchants will have difficulty balancing profits and quality. Now Temu has introduced a strict penalty system to solve this problem. However, Temu's imperfect management mechanism, coupled with its desire to maintain its ultimate cost-effectiveness, means that sellers need to face a more stringent platform operating environment, that is, they must ensure product quality while providing lower pricing . This is obviously not reasonable for Temu sellers, which is why it has caused so many complaints. From a rational point of view, the Temu model needs to be dialectically analyzed from two sides: Temu's low-price strategy conforms to the consumption trend and has been able to soar overseas, but it still lacks strong competitive barriers and has not established its own unique product supply advantages. In the future, whether Temu can solve the two problems most criticized by overseas consumers, namely logistics timeliness and product quality, may be the key for it to compete with old e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Walmart. What do you think about this? Welcome to discuss in the comment area~
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