Hundreds of traders demonstrated against the company’s policy.
The Chinese e-commerce giant Temu is causing dissatisfaction among some entrepreneurs who sell products through it.
On its website, Temu mainly sells products made in China from all over the world and at great prices.
PDD Holdings, which manages Temu, started operations only a couple of years ago.
However, it has quickly grown in popularity in an industry whose undisputed king has been Amazon until now. The price competition between the aforementioned and the third well-known operator, Shein, is fierce.
American news channel CNN says that according to research company Marketplace Pulse, more than 100,000 Chinese sellers sell their products through Temu. A large part of them are self-employed.
Even bankruptcy as a threat due to fines
According to a Cantonese clothing retailer interviewed by the Reuters news agency, Temu introduced new fines in April, which can be levied, for example, for delayed product delivery or wrong clothing size.
If the customer returns the product, the payment can be up to five times the price the merchant received for the product.
– Returning the money to the customer is fine. We want Temu to stop fining us, says a 25-year-old clothing merchant who came to the demonstration at Temu’s headquarters.
Due to the sensitivity of the matter, he did not want to make his name public.
According to him, many traders have either gone bankrupt or closed since Temu started the practice of fines.
– My business is small. I calculated that I would be fined more than 15,000 dollars, but the amount was almost triple, the clothing retailer is horrified.
According to him, the income from clothes is not even enough for salaries.
Another clothing retailer interviewed by Reuters, Penny says that he cannot stop working with Temu, however.
– I can’t just give up because I have to pay the workers’ wages and there are millions of yuan worth of goods in the warehouse.
The merchant interviewed by CNN, on the other hand, says that Temu had informed him of a “rule violation”, but it remained unclear to him what he had done wrong.
– I’m desperate. I might lose my business and my family. I regret joining the service.
According to the account statement seen by CNN, Temu had frozen the merchant’s funds worth just under two million yuan.
According to Temu, the vast majority of sellers are satisfied
According to Temu, most of the protesters are clothing retailers who are disappointed with how the company handles cases where the customer has to complain about the products in one way or another.
A large number of them also sell their products at Shein.
Temu informs that fine payments are necessary in order to maintain a certain level of quality in the marketplace.
According to Temu, the sellers have not agreed to deal with the matter within the terms of the contract with the company, but the company is still trying to find a solution to the situation.
– The vast majority of sellers are satisfied and business is going well.
‘s MOT tested clothes bought from the popular Shein app:
Source: Reuters