Temu is based in Boston, but its parent company is in Shanghai. Also: Seven things you didn’t realize your phone can do But the most stand-out feature about Temu is that many of the site’s products are incredibly cheap. You can buy sunglasses for $2, necklaces for $1, and glow-in-the-dark pet collars for $3. If you can imagine it, it’s probably on Temu for less than $10. Temu is a globalized version of Pinduoduo, a Chinese e-commerce company. Like Shein, AliExpress, and Wish, Temu advertises products for a low price and can do so because of lower manufacturing costs in China. But AliExpress and Wish never caught on with American audiences, mainly because the product listings were often fake, cheaply made, and arrived significantly later than expected. Also: What is Lemon8 and why is everyone talking about it on TikTok? Temu launched in late 2022 and quickly rose to the top spot in the App Store and Play Store’s shopping categories. People found out about Temu from ads and were attracted to the site’s low prices. According to Meta’s Ad Library, Temu has run about 3,400 Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger ads since November 19, 2022. According to MIT Technology Review, similar apps like Shein and AliExpress only promote dozens of ads once. However, there are plenty of five-star reviews for Temu on TrustPilot, mostly raving about low prices and a large selection of items. It’s unclear how many of those rave reviews are authentic or verifiable. Temu is not Better Business Bureau accredited and has an average rating of two out of five stars. Many recent complaints about Temu on the BBB’s website say that items never arrived or took weeks to months to arrive. Temu’s parent company, PDD Holdings, has built an impressive network of cost-efficient global suppliers, opening the opportunity to access millions of products. Temu also follows a reverse-manufacturing business model that removes the middle layer of product distribution, eliminating the cost of go-betweens. Also: Do you like asking ChatGPT questions? You could get paid (a lot) for it On top of the business model, Temu can relay customer feedback directly to manufacturers, alerting them of what products consumers want and when to produce the desired product. With these factors wrapped into Temu’s business model, the company can keep prices astonishingly low. According to Retail Insider, Temu’s reverse-manufacturing model helps the company decrease waste by more accurately gauging customers’ desired products. But according to many online reviews, many products bought from Temu are poorly made, unusable, or break easily, increasing the likelihood of Temu products ending up in landfills. Also: 5 ways to keep your smartphone working like new, for longer Temu’s Third Party Code of Conduct stresses that the company has a zero-tolerance policy for vendors that use forced labor to manufacture their products. All Temu vendors must comply with local wage and hour laws, and their working conditions must be safe and non-abusive. If you’re wondering if Temu is environmentally ethical, that’s a trickier topic. Sites like Temu, Shein, and AliExpress say they’re committed to environmental sustainability by digitalizing the economy, cutting supply chain waste, and offsetting carbon emissions. But many of these companies also distribute products that contain harmful chemicals that eventually end up in landfills. Also: TikTok bans explained: Everything you need to know Packages can be lost in transit, stolen on your doorstep, broken during the shipping process, or your item shows up looking completely different than it did online. Temu’s standard shipping policy in the U.S. is free but your items aren’t expected to ship for seven to 15 business days. Temu says that if your package never arrives or it says it’s been delivered but hasn’t been, you should contact customer service within 90 days of purchase.
