Temu and Shein traffic surged, but conversion rates were far lower than Amazon

Although Temu and Shein attracted millions of visitors to their websites this holiday season, they still lag far behind Amazon in converting clicks into actual sales, according to a report from e-commerce site Snap.

According to data tracking company Similarweb, nine out of 10 visitors to Temu and Shein's websites are browsers, not buyers.

The data also showed that in October, the number of unique visitors (UMV) to Shein's website was 28.6 million, up 7.25% from the same period last year, but the visit rate that ultimately completed a transaction dropped to 4.1% from 4.6% in the same period last year.

Temu’s UMV reached 42 million in October this year, more than four times that of the same period last year, of which only 4.5% of the visits resulted in actual transactions.

In comparison, Amazon’s UMV in October was 268 million, of which 56% of visits resulted in actual transactions, far ahead of Shein and Temu.

Temu and Shein have been able to attract a lot of attention because they have taken effective marketing measures. According to data provided by SensorTower, Shein increased its advertising spending by 60% in the first two weeks of November compared with the same period last year. During the same period, Temu's advertising spending increased by 2 times year-on-year.

The data also showed that Amazon's advertising spending fell in early November this year compared with the same period last year, but its user engagement was higher than in 2022.

Melissa Minkow, director of retail strategy at information technology company CI&T, noted that online shoppers trust Amazon’s broad product categories, fast delivery speeds and return policies more than Shein and Temu.

According to data from Similarweb, both unique visitors and user purchases on the Amazon platform increased during the Fall Prime Day promotion held in October.

It is worth noting that in addition to the United States, Temu and Shein are also actively expanding in the European market. In the European market, the UMV of the Temu app reached 51 million in October, successfully surpassing eBay. The UMV of the Shein app increased to 64 million, an increase of two-thirds from a year ago.

It is learned that as Black Friday approaches, competition in the US e-commerce market has further intensified. In addition to Amazon, Shein and Temu, online retailers such as Best Buy, Macy's, H&M, etc. have also launched the largest discounts in history.

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), about 130.7 million people plan to shop on Black Friday this year. Thanksgiving weekend, including Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday, will be the peak shopping period.

Editor ✎ Nicole/

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