Not sure if anyone here has used Temu - the Chinese shopping app.
Earlier this week, I used Temu for a second time. Some thoughts on this second event
Felt more rushed during this visit. More than a few times, a tiny pop-up message would appear - e.g 7 left. And a few seconds later, 4 left. Some of the US based travel aggregator sites have this feature, so it isn’t an Eastern phenomena.
Was using my laptop, so if #1 got too bothersome, I would just close the browser tab.
Site is really active. By that, I mean, lots of sensory stimuli when you are viewing the listings
Wow! the site has so many different items. But on the plus side, their search feature is pretty decent
One product had a hiccup when I tried to change the product color. The few other times, no issues
No games this time. Last time, a spinner wheel would pop-up to try and incentivize one to buy. This time, an incentive appeared after I neared a certain $ threshold e.g. “spend $3.59 more to get $200 reward” (there’s a catch, but I will cover that as a separate point)
Free shipping … but, there’s a catch there too. Instead of a date or a 1-2 day window, the Temu delivery window is wide e.g. the window for my first order was 9 days.
Sell to Americans? Last time, it seemed they beat the American eagle drum. This time, it seemed to be stars & stripes e.g. on shoe inner lining
Can this be tailored for other countries?
My card is on file? During payment time, I was a little surprised when the prompt said - Would you like to pay with CC ending in 6666? [Me: since you already know that one, I guess we’ll stick to that one ]
That item in #6 - Just a Temu upsell opportunity. Cross a certain $$ threshold after payment, the site offers you the additional incentive. The catch is, you have to spend more dollars to get a discount e.g. spend $40, get $10 off, OR spend $250, get $100 off. Lots of variations like that. Clever marketing
Soccer teams have 11 players and Temu sounds like “team”, so I end with this last one - the charitable side. Temu asks if I would like to round up my purchase total - I agreed, Temu says it is planting some tree/bamboo for me
Now the wait for my trinkets! (Would be schwag if I caved in to the upsell)
HoHumYNWA
Now that DollarTree has jacked all its prices to $1.25, I’ve found a few items are actually cheaper on TEMU. Though, as you point out, you might have to wait 7 to 10 days for delivery.
I saw this video a few weeks ago from CBS News in Chicago saying that TEMU was a Chinese scam to collect Americans’ data. And that 50 million Americans have bought stuff on TEMU and 500 complained to the Better Business Bureau. The CBS News investigative reporter apparently doesn’t realize that’s a phenomemally good complaint ratio. {{ LOL }}
Probably because most people don’t complain when the issue is on items under $20. I purchased stuff on Temu once so far. And believe it or not, they somehow got me to buy more items than I originally wanted by using a combination of promos and shipping discounts when ordering a at a certain level (somewhere between $10 and $20 as I recall). And all the stuff arrived reasonably quickly. The primary item I ordered (wireless headphones) was okay, but the rest of the items (wristbands for sports, a “large” gym size shirt that was labelled large but was way way way too small* for me, and some other smaller items) were utter junk and completely unusable.
* Normally I wear a medium or a large, but this “large” was a joke.
@pauleckler - Just to be clear, there are two separate issues
The delivery time e.g. in this case, up to two weeks
The delivery window e.g 5 days (Oct 19 - Oct 24).
In the comment, I was referring to #2. I had already accounted for #1 based on the first experience.
FWIW - similar to Amazon and other retailers, Temu provide a tracking feature
My experience was not with Temu. About two years ago I found an attractive offer for shoes in an online ad and placed an order. The credit card bill arrived before the shoes. I called the company and cancelled the order. Had them taken off my credit card bill.
I never heard from the company. A week later the shoes arrived. My guess is they had been shipped on a container ship and them mailed to me from Kentucky. Container took 10 days to cross the Pacific, plus time to fill container with other orders in China, rail travel across the US and then mail time.
Too long to keep myj order.
I doubt that items are in inventory in the US. They probably have arranged shipment by air. I find when ordering on line from an outside seller (Amazon, Walmart, eBay) its important to know where they are shipping from. It can make a big difference.
Don’t forget that once that is what “Made in Japan” meant. But gradually they worked their way up the food chain. In electronics, initially companies in the US decided not to try to compete with their low quality merchandise. It wasn’t very profitable. The money was in the better stuff.
Over time they figured it out. And now many cars on the road in the US are from foreign companies. Ditto electronics.
Temu has sent me multiple emails since my second order went in. I think they fall in two categories
i. Logistical - my order has shipped. From the initial order experience, I think there are more of these type of emails e.g. when package arrives on US shores, when it gets to a regional distribution center, etc
ii. The marketing emails - More shoe offers? Who do they think I am - an Imelda Marcos wannabe? Most of these will be ignored.
Temu package got delivered yesterday (10/18) - a day earlier than the start of delivery window (10/19). Good job, Temu.
The “stuffs” – three of four items good. The cargo shorts fit - I opted for XXL to get a 36in waist pair of shorts Each pair of card games seem okay. OTOH, the shoes? Even with my lowered expectations on the product, not impressed. Not impressed visually - seems different from the image. Will have to try them out. But very cheap looking. Oh well.
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