The return rate is as high as 30%! Temu sellers are under great pressure to make profits

A recent viral TikTok video shows an employee at the Temu Logistics Centre complaining about the mountains of goods.

"Everyone stop placing orders immediately! How long will I be able to work with so many packages!"

Obviously, this is because this e-commerce newcomer is rising rapidly. Pinduoduo only launched the Temu platform in North America in September last year, and in the past few months, this e-commerce platform has been dominating the App Store and Play Store download charts.

Temu has won the hearts of American consumers with its rich assortment of clothing, accessories, nail polish and household essentials, ultra-low prices, and a marketing approach that places a heavy emphasis on social media .

In fact, Temu’s rapid rise did not surprise industry insiders as it seemed to adopt a similar strategy to Shein, which has proven to be very successful.

As the platform develops rapidly, people naturally think that domestic sellers have also made a lot of money, but the actual situation seems to be the opposite.

On major social media platforms, many sellers have complained about poor platform management, unfriendly seller policies, and great pressure to make profits.

As videos of employees complaining about Temu went viral on TikTok, Temu faced another challenge: its domestic warehouse capacity was close to full, preventing sellers from storing or shipping their products to the United States.

Just recently, Temu suddenly announced without prior notice that it would close its warehouse and temporarily stop receiving products.

A Temu seller who requested anonymity said: “The notice was sent without any prior notice and caught us off guard.”

"We had to remove products from the shelves due to lack of stock and sales have been declining."

The seller continued: " What's even more ridiculous is that Temu penalized me for not having enough stock, but the reality is that I shipped the goods as soon as the warehouse was restored. "

Many sellers also said they had similar experiences and expressed their dissatisfaction on social media, claiming that they should not be held responsible for the losses caused by Temu's mismanagement and inadequate storage capacity planning.

In addition to management issues, another point of dissatisfaction for sellers is the platform’s pricing strategy. Unlike Amazon, Temu will decide the selling price of the platform’s products.

The pricing process is roughly as follows: sellers send their products to the Temu warehouse, the platform decides which products to list and requires sellers to offer extremely low prices.

"If we can't offer the lowest price, our products will not be approved for listing," said a Henan seller in an interview.

To ensure the lowest price, the platform also introduced a bidding mechanism: when multiple suppliers offer similar products, the platform will choose the option with the lowest price.

In addition, some sellers have also expressed concerns about the high return rate on the platform. Seller Andy , who has stores on both Temu and Amazon, said her Amazon store only has a 7% return rate, while the Temu store has a staggering 30% return rate. When asked about the specific types of products she sells on these e-commerce platforms, she declined to disclose, saying only that they were household necessities.

According to Tool4Seller, Amazon’s average return rate fluctuates between 5% and 15% depending on the category. Temu’s average return rate is still undetermined.

However, no matter how much sellers complain, it seems that Temu's rapid development cannot be stopped . The emotions of consumers can also be felt in the comments section of TikTok: Stop making videos complaining, and get to work! I have been waiting for my Temu package for a long time!

Surprisingly, the TikTok user who previously complained about the increased workload has stopped whining and has instead added a Temu referral link to her profile in the hope that more people will sign up.

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