Temu has updated their policy again, and it is suspected that they will start charging storage fees

Temu updated policy, may charge storage fees

Just as the saying goes, “30 years east of the river, 30 years west of the river,” in the cross-border e-commerce industry, it only takes three years for this to apply.

“In 2020, I begged an Amazon merchant manager for a link; in 2023, the merchant manager asked me to help recommend new sellers.” The experience of an Amazon veteran seller illustrates this well.

And now, just as the storm of Amazon account verification has not yet subsided, FBA has come to give sellers more trouble, gradually wearing down the enthusiasm of Amazon sellers. In contrast, more and more sellers are beginning to inquire about Temu’s entry channels.

Old products are forced off the shelves, and their rankings plummet!

Is FBA dragging you down?

Speaking of Amazon FBA in recent times, in addition to frequent warehouse splits, the other major problem is warehouse efficiency.

• Did Pinduoduo relocate its headquarters from China to Ireland? Official response seriously untrue
• Open to third-party sellers! Temu has launched in six European countries, Shein is forced to become a ‘platform’?

Yesterday, a seller in the midst of starting up was completely frustrated by FBA’s efficiency, and helplessly sought help online: “Starting a business requires effort and luck, but I have had extremely bad luck. Slow warehousing is one thing, but urgent goods have not been warehoused. How can I solve this?”

It is understood that this seller used Meisen Express to send a total of seven boxes of goods, which were allotted to the remote CLT2 warehouse (similar to Urumqi in China). As a result, three boxes were missing. What’s even more frustrating is that these three boxes were urgently needed. With such a strange situation, the seller suspects that they are being targeted by Amazon. They are anxious because the plastic bags did not have anti-suffocation labels…which could be the reason for being targeted. The more they think about it, the more anxious they become.

This post immediately resonated with a large number of sellers. Some colleagues comforted the original poster: it’s not bad luck, the overall environment is like this. The efficiency of FBA can be summed up in two words: slow as a turtle. The warehouse reception is slow, and the shelving is also slow. As a result, many sellers have run out of stock:

“LAS1 arrived on April 17th, and reception started on April 24th. One box was received, but there has been no movement for the remaining dozen boxes up until now (May 8th). Not only are there new goods, but there are also many replenishments of old products that are all out of stock. Now, we can only send them by express delivery…”

“The shipment was sent before May 1st, and was received on May 2nd, but it still hasn’t been shelved up until now (May 8th). Our ranking has plummeted, and we have already run out of stock!”

“Urgent goods, warehouse LAX9. The status of the background shipment was updated to ‘check in’ after April 29th. As of May 8th, the number of items received is still 0, and we have already run out of stock.”

When confronted with the above problems, can sellers only sit idly by? In response, an Amazon veteran shared their solution: I’ve encountered the problem of slow shelving myself. I opened an English case to urge the shelving process. Although the reply email said that it would take half a month before the shelving, in fact, both tickets were shelved within 2-3 days after opening the English case. In addition, the veteran also reminded fellow sellers to be sure to label plastic bags with the warning of suffocation. Don’t be lazy. If necessary, buy plastic bags with warning labels. Otherwise, it can be really troublesome if they are inspected.

Up to 2000 orders per day after three months on the shelves!

Another wave of Amazonians surge into Temu…

In fact, the outbreak of FBA warehouse efficiency problems is closely related to Amazon’s wave of layoffs, affecting not only warehouse employees but also business development managers.

According to some sellers’ feedback, many Amazon investment managers have changed their careers this year, some to Amazon operations, and others to Temu.

Temu of Pinduoduo has been continuously popular overseas, making many cross-border sellers miss the trend. I checked Temu’s website traffic in the last three months. Its traffic saw a sharp increase in April, reaching 110 million visits per month, which is a 63% increase compared to March! In the App Store ranking of the US region, Temu is still in the first place.

Source: similarweb

For a shopping website that has been online for less than ten months, it is amazing that Temu’s monthly website traffic has exceeded 110 million visits! Let’s make a comparison. AliExpress, which has been going global for more than 13 years, currently has a monthly website traffic of only over 400 million visits. Although the platform rules of Temu are constantly controversial, the enthusiasm of cross-border sellers to settle on Temu has not diminished at all.

“Hey guys, do you have any Temu account manager to recommend?”

“Temu has opened multiple sites, and its website traffic has increased again. Can Temu really deliver? Which sellers are suitable to enter?”

As I observed, similar information is flooding major seller communities. The reason is simple, because Temu has website traffic, and it has impacted the sales of certain categories on Amazon. A seller said that products with a unit price of more than $20 were sold for only about $8 on Temu. Some sellers have also reported that their products on Amazon were copied exactly on Temu (related report >> Temu is also copying! Pinduoduo is suspected of plagiarizing Amazon sellers…), and these products sold better than on Amazon.

With the boost of traffic dividends, some sellers who have switched to Temu have already tasted the sweet taste of success. “My focus this year is on Temu. I now have 10 stores on Temu and we need to plan our products well and seize this opportunity!” said a veteran Amazon seller of ten years who is very optimistic about the prospects of Temu. According to him, it only took three months from 0 to 2000 orders per day, even with few products.

As of the time of writing, Kan-ge found that over 200 people have left messages under the Weibo post of the seller who has 2000 orders per day, hoping to learn from him how to do Temu. To this, he suggested that if you are already a stock-selling seller or a source factory, you are very suitable to do Temu.

Temu updates again,

suspected to charge storage fees

So for ordinary trade sellers who do not have a supply chain accumulation or a factory, should they still do Temu? Most people may say no, because there is no profit. However, it depends on the situation. If you still have a lot of Amazon unsold inventory in your domestic warehouse, it can be considered. “Temu is still good for clearing inventory. Amazon’s unsold inventory is being cleared out,” said one seller.

However, Temu’s policies are indeed changeable, even more so than Amazon. One seller complained, “Operating Temu is very different from Amazon, not to mention that recently I had to wake up at midnight to grab shipping quotas, which is already making me want to vomit.”

In addition, some sellers suspect that Temu is preparing to start charging storage fees, and have attached a screenshot:

Source: Provided by Weibo netizens

As we all know, the main conflict point of Temu in the past was bargaining between the platform buyers and sellers. Now, it has become a conflict between the sellers and the system over warehouse positions and replenishment quantities. It has to be said that Pinduoduo’s move is quite clever.

From the perspective of traffic, Temu has indeed become a new trend in the cross-border industry, but its platform policies are also quite controversial, it can be said to be a combination of “angels and demons”. How do you sellers view this platform? Welcome to discuss in the comments!

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