Temu is making it easier for U.S. sellers to join its fast-growing marketplace
Temu is ramping up its bid to win over Amazon’s army of independent sellers.
For about the past six months, China-backed e-commerce upstart Temu has been recruiting U.S. sellers to join its fast-growing discount site, with one caveat: Merchants could only join if they had an invite code that was unique to them.
Now, any American brand or individual seller can register to sell on Temu.
Modern Retail was able to confirm this by going through the application process on Temu’s website, which only takes 10 minutes to complete, according to the company. Applications are typically reviewed within one business day, the website also says. It’s unclear when precisely Temu opened up its marketplace, but sources who spoke to Modern Retail for this story noticed the change last week. Temu did not respond to a request for comment.
After creating an account, the application form asks users to fill out their business information, which varies depending on their business type. For example, if registering as a corporation, the form asks for an employer identification number. From there, the form asks for personal seller information, such as their address and citizenship information, including their personal ID or passport number. The application asks sellers to provide their store name and a logo. Finally, the form requires proof of address, like a water or electricity bill. After that, an applicant just needs to hit “Submit.”
Crucially, Temu’s marketplace has fully opened up to U.S. sellers just in time for the holiday season, during which time Chinese e-commerce sites, including Temu, are expected to capture 21% — or $160 billion — of global e-commerce sales outside of China, according to Salesforce.
It’s all part of Temu’s new strategy within the last year to become more like Amazon by wooing American brands that ship out of local warehouses. It’s a departure from the direct-from-China shipping model that has fueled Temu’s meteoric rise and even inspired Amazon’s new discount store, Haul, which quietly launched in the U.S. last week. For Amazon, independent merchants are a vital profit engine, generating $140 billion in sales last year. By making it easier for brands to sign up, Temu is heating up its campaign to win over the very sellers that power Amazon’s competitive e-commerce business.
Temu has made progress recruiting U.S. sellers in the last few months, including Amazon’s largest merchants. Five of the top 25 biggest Amazon sellers, according to Marketplace Pulse, now sell on Temu. Still, U.S. merchants represent less than 1% of Temu’s estimated 300,000 total sellers, Juozas Kaziukėnas, founder and CEO of Marketplace Pulse, said in an interview with Modern Retail. It will take time to see whether Temu’s wide open marketplace will attract more U.S. sellers to join.
“It’s true right now that Temu wants U.S. sellers, but I’m not sure if U.S. sellers want Temu,” Kaziukėnas said. “For now, Temu has practically no U.S. sellers, and Temu has to prove itself that it’s a good marketplace for those sellers.”
Craig Leslie, founder of The Bean Coffee Company, joined Temu in September, shortly after he went to a happy hour hosted by Temu employees in Seattle, where he was attending Amazon’s annual seller conference. Back then, Temu’s marketplace was by invitation only, and the approval process took about a week. He also had to physically scan paper documents that proved his business was legitimate and then send the digital copies to Temu to verify.
By comparison, the web application process is “more streamlined,” he said.
While the web application makes it easier for U.S. sellers to join Temu, it will face the same uphill struggles that have upended other discount marketplaces that tried to grow beyond Chinese sellers, Kaziukėnas said. Look no further than once-buzzworthy bargain retailer Wish, which was sold in February for $173 million in cash. The e-commerce company was valued at $14 billion when it debuted as a publicly traded company in Dec. 2020.
Temu’s race to add U.S. merchants also comes as the future of a trade rule that helps retailers like Temu bypass duties and taxes for imports from China to U.S. consumers hangs in the balance. Earlier this year, the Biden Administration issued a sweeping executive action that would drastically limit this trade provision, Modern Retail previously reported. The shift to sellers with local warehouses has helped to reduce its reliance on the trade provision.
Leslie hasn’t started selling products yet on Temu, citing his busy schedule. But he thinks the pressure for more merchants like himself to be on Temu will only grow.
As Leslie put it, “As e-commerce evolves, as a brand, we need to be on every platform so that we’re getting in front of as many eyeballs as we can.”