Temu promises US shipping, but the products are not manufactured here

Temu promises US shipping, but the products are not manufactured here

Shortly after an important customs exemption in the USA on Friday, the Chinese e-commerce website Temu announced that it was fundamentally revised its shipping model. From now on all sales in the USA will be handled by resident sellers.

changes in the shipping model

A spokesman for Temu said in an early message on Friday: "All sales in the USA are now being dealt with by locally resident sellers, whereby the orders are being processed directly from the country." The company has actively started winning US sellers for the platform.

effects of customs regulations

This change is a significant change for Temu. In the past, Temu and other Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Shein and Aliexpress used the so-called de-minimis exception to flood the US market with extremely inexpensive goods. While President Donald Trump has explained that his new tariffs should bring the production back to the USA, Temus shows that large companies may find ways to escape these requirements and to pursue alternative strategies.

The de-minimis exception

The de-minimis exception made it possible to introduce goods worth of up to $ 800 to the United States, with lengthy inspections and bureaucracy. Chinese e-commerce pages in particular benefited from this regulation and flooded the US market with inexpensive products. With the high tariffs imposed by Trump on all Chinese imports, however, many Americans who were dependent on these pages could find that the cheap goods are suddenly less affordable.

price increase and availability

The majority of Shein and Temu products are produced in China and imported directly to the USA, which leads to the low prices. Temus new business practices may correspond to Donald Trump's ideas, but only because the products are sent from a “local camp” does not mean that they were also manufactured in the USA. Websites like Temu and Shein have expanded their camp in the USA over the years to shorten the shipping times.

reactions of customers

On the Temu website, it is said that for items that are bought from local camps do not incur any import fees or additional costs for delivery. Nevertheless, users on social media report on products that have already been sold out. A user on Reddit noticed that about 60 items were suddenly no longer available in his shopping cart on Friday.

future challenges for Temu

Temu began to increase prices last week. The article mentions that some products are not available locally and incurred additional fees if orders from their warehouse are less than $ 30. "Temu is gone! What I saw today totally convinced me!" wrote an annoyed customer and added that local sellers apparently not have all the articles he wanted to buy.

The situation at Temu shows how complex the challenges in international trade are and that consumers can have different experiences.