It has been two weeks since Pinduoduo entered the cross-border e-commerce market. Since the day Temu was launched, its APP downloads have grown rapidly, and its ranking in applications has also soared. As of now, Temu ranks 14th among shopping apps in the Apple Store .

It is learned that on September 15th, US time, Pinduoduo's cross-border platform Temu will end the platform's internal testing and open sales to merchants of all categories. According to information on its official website, during the internal testing period, the order volume of many hot-selling products has exceeded 1,000 , further verifying the huge potential of Temu.

▲ The picture comes from Temu official website

Multiple promotions at the same time, breaking the industry's floor price

During Temu’s grand opening event, the platform launched three major promotions: free shipping, 30% discount, and free returns :

30% discount

Entering the homepage of Temu's official website, there is a 30% discount promotion information. It is reported that new users can enjoy this discount for the first three orders , which is a world of difference compared to the earliest 20% discount for the first order.

Free shipping

Temu is offering free shipping from September 11 to 14 , and customers can get a full refund if their order is delayed .

The first return cost of any order is borne by Temu ; and an order can be returned or exchanged multiple times within 90 days. The buyer only needs to pay the shipping fee of US$7.99 , which will be deducted from the refund in the end.

In addition to the above content, Temu has also launched a super value promotion of "1 cent to choose 1" . Each account can spend 0.01 US dollars to select a product on the activity page, and before the 14th, the product can also enjoy free shipping service, which is almost equivalent to giving it away for free!

The reason why Temu can keep its price low

It is learned that long before the Temu platform was launched, Pinduoduo required merchants to have source factories or traders that can guarantee production capacity and quality, and have stable production and inventory. Sellers without supply advantages were eliminated in the first round of competition, and most of those left were directly operated factories or large traders.

Moreover, according to some news from Pinduoduo's official investment promotion group, Temu requires sellers to quote a supply price lower than the market wholesale price when publishing products , otherwise the review will fail. This is why the products that buyers see on the platform are cheaper than those on the market, because the official has made requirements for their pricing in advance.

▲ The picture comes from Pinduoduo cross-border e-commerce group

Relying on suppliers' extreme profit compression and the platform's discounts, Temu successfully achieved the "lowest price on the entire network". This model is similar to that of Pinduoduo in China.

A new cross-border window or a channel for clearing inventory?

Temu has achieved rich results in just half a month since its launch. Many people regard it as a new window for cross-border e-commerce, but many sellers have expressed different opinions.

" This model is only suitable for factories, and it is difficult for traders to get the lowest price ."

Some sellers have come up with a win-win idea: they can use Temu as a channel to clear inventory, and use Temu to clear out the goods that cannot be sold on Amazon.

Some people also analyzed that Temu is not looking for profit from selling goods, but fission users and making money in the secondary market . If it is purely for the purpose of expanding the number of users, it will do it even if it loses money, just like Pinduoduo in China did at the beginning.

On the other hand, perhaps the original intention of Temu was to help domestic factories solve the problem of overcapacity and redundant inventory . After all, in the overseas retail market, large platforms such as Amazon and AliExpress have long been deeply rooted, and it is difficult for Temu to compete with them by normal means.

At present, Temu's model seems to be gradually moving closer to Pinduoduo in China. Although the platform has not yet launched Pinduoduo's core function - " group buying ", the Pinduoduo cross-border e-commerce team has stated that Temu will continue the "social + e-commerce" marketing model . In addition, the Temu APP also emphasizes the concept of " Team Up, Price Down" . I believe that Temu will continue to play a unique role in the cross-border e-commerce market in the future.