With its marketing strategies...
If you spend much time online you've probably seen one of Temu's colourful ads – punctuated by its catchy tagline: “shopping like a billionaire”.
Temu specializes in selling various everyday items, including clothing, toys and household goods, for extremely low prices. Shanghai-based company PDD Holdings launched the online marketplace late last year (initially in the United States) to cater to overseas customers.
Since then, Temu's reach has skyrocketed. The total value of products sold went from US$3 million in September last year, to US$400 million in April. At the time of publishing this article, Temu was the most popular free iPhone app in the US, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany.
Why has Temu been such a massive success? It's safe to say the platform has some winning strategies that keep consumers coming back. But beyond that, similar to other e-commerce platforms, using it isn't entirely risk- or guilt-free.
Unlike other e-commerce platforms that focus on functional benefits such as saving money, Temu caters to consumers' emotional needs. It overlays the shopping experience with the idea of “shopping like a billionaire” – which also aligns with its value-based strategy
Given China's leadership in live-streaming influencer marketing, Temu is now recruiting social media influencers, suggesting it might leverage its Chinese expertise to explore a social-commerce strategy. Social commerce harnesses a sense of “friendship” conveyed by influencers, making the online shopping experience more engaging and product recommendations more convincing. It also works especially well with sales promotions.
The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now.