As the days wound down to Christmas, Wenkang Cai was upset about a festive decorative ribbon that Temu wouldn’t approve for sale because the website argued the price could be lower.
“I submitted a quote for 4 RMB ($0.56) and the platform squeezed the price down to 1.96 RMB ($0.28), though I managed to negotiate with the supplier and they gave me a price of 1.88 RMB ($0.26), it’s not profitable at all,” Cai said.
Cai is a seller on Temu, an online retail platform that rapidly increased in popularity over the last year. Cai shared his international e-commerce experience with the Daily Dot from his warehouse in Shenzhen, a city in the Chinese province Guangdong. In the background, phones rang and trucks blew their horns. Cai explained that the noise was due to couriers losing their tempers over the wait to pick up deliveries or because their vans were blocked in.
“Temu‘s specialty told me that it could be other merchants holding holiday sales, so the price [detected by the algorithm] was low, and they suggested I wait until the sale is over and resubmit my quote,” said Cai, referring to the company’s team of specialists tasked with approving merchandise for sale on the platform.
Cai agreed that waiting would mean he missed selling the ribbon during the holiday season.
“It would have performed better if I started to sell the ribbon two months in advance. Now that the holiday is around the corner and sales are going on everywhere, it’s a risky time to join the competition,” Cai said with a sigh.
Cai entered the e-commerce industry in 2019 when he began selling gardening tools and seasonal decorations. He initially sold on Amazon, Walmart, and AliExpress. Shenzhen, where Cai lives, sits at the southernmost pole of mainland China