Dive Brief:
- Temu has a strong appeal among budget-conscious shoppers versus e-commerce giant Amazon, according to a survey from Probolsky Research released last week.
- Forty percent of respondents said Temu was “much cheaper” than Amazon, whereas 36% said Temu was “somewhat cheaper.” Only 3% of respondents said Amazon was “much cheaper” or “somewhat cheaper” than Temu.
- The consumer’s view that Temu is cheaper could be a “huge advantage” to the fast fashion company “if they keep that as part of their brand,” said Adam Probolsky, president of Probolsky Research.
Dive Insight:
Survey respondents included 340 U.S. consumers who had made at least one purchase on both Temu and Amazon within the last year. Probolsky Research conducted the survey between June 21 and June 24.
“Temu is more competitive [than] I imagine many people think they are,” Probolsky said in an email to Fashion Dive.
Amazon ranked considerably higher than Temu on convenience and customer experience, with 66% of respondents saying Amazon is “much faster” than Temu, and 15% saying it was “somewhat faster” than Temu. One percent of respondents said Temu was “much faster,” and 3% said it was “somewhat faster” than Amazon.
“There is virtually no chance that anyone can replicate the ‘last mile advantage’ Amazon has in the U.S.,” Probolsky said.
Forty-five percent of respondents said both Amazon and Temu have a similar customer service experience. However, Amazon scored higher than Temu on that point, with 33% saying Amazon’s customer service was much better than Temu’s, while 2% said Temu’s customer service was much better.
Another 45% of respondents said both e-commerce companies have a similar product variety. Twenty-four percent said Amazon had a much greater variety, whereas 3% said Temu had a much greater variety.
In terms of return policies, 39% of survey respondents said the companies had similar policies, but 32% said Amazon’s policy is much better, whereas only 3% said Temu’s was much better.
Reviews are crucial for both platforms, Probolsky Research said in the report, with 58% of respondents saying reviews were equally important for both. However, 17% said reviews were much more important on Amazon than Temu, and 6% said reviews were much more important on Temu.
“This reflects the role reviews play in influencing purchasing decisions, with Amazon’s extensive review system being a competitive advantage,” the research firm noted in the report.
Temu is a relative newcomer to the e-commerce space, having launched in the U.S. in 2022. However, it has rapidly grown in popularity.
A separate report earlier this year from Omnisend found that 17.5% of respondents said they believe Temu could overtake Amazon as the leading e-commerce platform. In that same survey, consumers said they trust Amazon more than Temu, but spending patterns didn’t match these results.
