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The platform offers incredibly cheap products. The temptation to throw away consumption is great.
Temu has a conspicuous presence with its advertising on social networks such as Instagram or Tiktok. “The online retailer was founded in the USA, but belongs to a holding company from China and would like to win new customers as quickly as possible,” says Johanna Gollnhofer from the University of St. Gallen. “For Temu, the official target group is digitally savvy customers who are used to buying something digitally but don’t want to spend too much money. This automatically makes it a younger target group.”
Temu offers a shopping experience that is much more similar to shopping in a physical store than other online stores.
Is the clientele once in the online shop, the marketing really begins. “What Temu does is called Marketing Discovery Commerce. Temu actually adopted the logic of social media.” This means that you can always see new products in the online shop. “You should be inspired by new products. And that’s why Temu offers a shopping experience that is much more similar to the shopping experience in a normal store than in other online shops.»
Short term discounts
In addition, an algorithm learns what the customer likes and continuously adapts the product suggestions. This is already the case in other online shops, but at Temu, customers are even more tempted to buy products that they were not actually looking for, says Johanna Gollnhofer.
At the same time, Temu tries to persuade customers to buy with rock-bottom prices and discounts that are only valid for a short time. There is a ballpoint pen for 1.11 francs, a mobile phone charging cable for 2.79 francs or a lipstick for 1.34 francs. Non-governmental organizations are therefore critical of the online retailer.
The low prices promote a consumption and throwaway mentality, which is highly problematic from an ecological point of view.
David Hachfeld from the non-governmental organization Public Eye says: “The risk with these platforms is that people feel tempted to overconsume. A product costs only a few Swiss francs or sometimes just centimes. This promotes a throwaway consumerism, which is highly problematic from an ecological point of view.”
Legend: The discount battle that Temu is waging is a problem for other online retailers. Reuters/Florence Lo
In addition, with product prices so low, the working conditions in the manufacturing plants are bad mostly bad. Public Eye therefore demands transparency. Dealers would have to disclose how their suppliers deal with human rights. Switzerland is lagging behind other European countries.
discount battle
Swiss online retailers are also critical of Temu. Temu is definitely a competitor for some local online shops, especially in the lower price segment and with customers who don’t pay attention to the quality, says Bernhard Egger, Managing Director of the Swiss Trade Association: “The difficulty is the discount battle. Some of the prices are the purchase prices from Swiss dealers. »
Like other Chinese companies, Temu can send small parcels to Europe very cheaply, thanks to an old regulation of the Universal Postal Union. However, the prices will now be gradually adjusted upwards until 2025. Whether Temu can gain a foothold in Switzerland in the long term is an open question. It also depends on whether the platform manages to keep customers on the platform despite criticism from NGOs.