Is Amazon Turning into Temu? – ryan

Photo-illustration: Intelligenmer; Photos: Amazon

Here’s an Experiment you can run yourSelf. Open Up A Category on Amazon-Electronics, Toys, Home Garden & Tools, Whatever-and Scan the first page for a product line with no obvious brand, or spread a semi-brand like ocbyhz, bank, or claqqed. Take a look at the Product Photos and Description, and Note the Price. Next, try to find the Product on Temu, the Discount App With the Super Bowl Ads, and Check How Much It Costs. Next, try to find it on aliexpress, the international e-commerce subsidiary of the Chinese Alibaba Group, or on Tiktok Shop. Finally, you can look for it on alibaba proper, where it might be available as well, Shipped Straight from China.

Sometimes, not always, but more than you might expect, this work. heels This Dress From Cupshe, Listeed on Amazon at $ 47.99, with more than 4,200 ratings, shatly positive. On TEMU, WHERE IT ALSO Ships for Free From A “Local” (Read Domestic) Warehouse, ITI’S LISTED AS “WOMEN CASUAL BOHO Lace Floral V Neck Long Beach Dress Party Maxi Wedding Dress” and Costs Just $ 16.49. On Tiktok Shop, it’s on Flash Sale with Free Shipping for $ 27 Dollars. On Aliexpress, IT’S AVAILABLE AT LOTS OF PRICES FROM DIFFERENT SELLERS, FOR $ 9.90 WITH $ 9.60 SHIPPING, OR, ON PROMOTION, SHIPPED FREE WITH AN ALEGED 85.2 PERCENT CHANCE OF ARRIVING 14 DAYS for $ 8.66.

I didn’t order these dresses, so i can’t verify that they have been exactly or that one isn’t a rip-off of another, will i know Enough about boho dresses to tell you are a rip-off of a dys-chommer World.

But again, this isn’t uncommon. One Popular Speaker, For Example, Branded AS T&G, Is $ 15.75 on Amazon, $ 8.38 on TEMU, and $ 4.94 with Free Shipping on Aliexpress. It”s Clearly… inspired by popular speakers From 78-Yaar-Old Company JBL, WHICH ALSO SELL ON AMAZON, ALBEIT for $ 89.95 on Steep Discount.

The process works acroSs categories: A Pair of Bike Shorts Goes From $ 19.99 to $ 11.77 to $ 2.30; A Folding Utility Wagon Goes from $ 95 to $ 38.99 (indentinguishaable from the family Purchased on Amazon in 2023 for $ 110.59). Are these the exact Same Products? Maybe, and in most probably. Its Possible they’re made from the same reference by DIFFERENT Factories; in other caes, they might be sold by the same sellers on different platforms.

But for any willing to take a little time to comparison accross Big Online, IT’S CLEAR Something is Happening: Amazon is Becoming More Like Temu, SHOP, Shein, and Aliexpress while Chinese e-Commerce platforms are Becoming, in America at Least. The Big Story Are All Selling the Same Brandlesss Imports from China, Sometimes at Wildly Different Prices, and Converging on Similar Logistical Strategies: Temu is shifting seller inventory to American Warehouses to Reduse Shipping Times; Amazon is planning to launch a dedicated discount section with products that Ship from overseas in about a week.

In the broadest sense, this is prity family stuff. DIFFERENT STORES OFFERING SOME OF THE SAME PRODUCTS AT DIFFERENT PRICES WITH DIFFERENT Levels of Convenience is the story of Big-Box Physical Retail and Groces, Too. But is is different in some ways that are are obivious and others that are more subtle. These aren’t Chain Stoles Offering Occussional Discounts on Branded Products with Msrps But Rather Marketplaces Full of Sellers Who Are Individualy Price Based on Fluctuations in Waresing Rates, Shipping, and The Cuts Taken by the E-Commerce platforms. Additionally, The Products We’re Talking About Range from Junk to Solid Unbredd Alternatives – This Is, Across the Board, Discount Shopping. You Might Score a 90 Percent Discount on A Fast-Fashion Shirt or Some-Décor Dupes, But You’re Not Going to Get A Shocking Temu Deal on, Say, A PlayStation, Although You plow Buy say there, whic wasn’t really true when it first launched.

These companies are apprroaching the same e-commerce strategy from Very Different positions as well. TEMU, AN INTERNATIONAL SUBSIDIARY OF E-Commerce Giant Pinduoduo, is Spanding Heavily to Break Foreign Markets Including the United States, in Many Cases Subsidizing Shipping and Reportedly Operating at A massive loss; Aliexpress has Been Making Slower Inroads With Its Product, which is more overtly a cross-border whole-adjacent marketplace, with long shipping and minimal domestic marketing.

Amazon’s Drift Into Cross-Barder e-commerce predates the likes of temp and these other comparts. Since the late 2010s, a major of Amazon’s sales have ben attributable to third-party Sellers, Mary of WHOM Pay substantial Fees to the Company for Logistical Support (Warehousing, Shipping) and Advertising. This strategy has ben great for amazon in a lot of ways: it shifts market research and risk to sellers; Rather than Stocking Their Own Products, The Company Charges Sellers to Stock Theirs; The Company Is Now the Third-LARGEST PLAYER IN Digital Ads, Behind Meta and Google, Owing Mostly to Fees It Amazon Sellers to Be Visible onto Amazon. IT’S ALSO Changed the Product in More Complicated Ways. American Sellers, Many of the WHOM Sourced or Manufactured Their Products Oversseas, Soon Founds Competing With Sellers with More Direct Connections with Chinese Factories; Amazon, for its part, Courted oversseas Sellers. American Sellers Were Made to Look Like Middlemen, Which in Some Ways they were-the Companies they were building well brands to say High-Ranked-and-Reviewed Amazon Lisings, and the Manufactures they work with Knew exactly what Kinds of the Were Getting.

Now, something Similar is Happening to Amazon as a whole. While the platform has been-moving downmarket, becoming more hostile to name brands whose products are being undercut and in some case plainly ripped off, china-baed completitors are attaking it from below, WORKING WITH SOME OF THE SAME Manufacturers and Sellers to Cast Amazon as the Middleman with Needlessly High Prices. While amazon initially pushed into cross-border e-commerce on its Own Terms, Now Its Doing SO defensively.

Amazon Still Has Huge Advantages here. It is profitable, widelly like and trusted, and still by Tens of millions of Americans to Buy Mainstream Products from Recognizable Brands. Customers who use it to buy an oCCACABAL CUPSHE DRESS, ON WHICH AMAZON and A Third-Party Seller Are Collecting Huge Margins, Are Likely to Be Buying Batteries or Detergent, Too. And no Company, foreign or domestic, can come close to Amazon’s Prime Shipping Infrastructure.

But there are obivious risk, too. Customers like cheap Things, but they like cheaper things more. IT’S NOT CLEAR THAT AMAZON CAN PROFITABLY WIN IN A RACE TO THE BOTTOM, OR THAT IT WONT DAMAGE ITS REPUTION TRYING. Amazon Risks Making Its Marketplace Fully Uninhabitable for More Established Brands and Hostle to Domestic Sellers, Some of Who Have called Its temp -i plans a “slap in the face.”

THEN THERE ARE CUSTOMERS. An ornate $ 9 Dress on Aliexpress is an ethical and environmental nightmare, a semi-discussion Garment of sewn-together externalities. But so is the one on Amazon – which is also something work, at least in the eyes of the marketplace: a really bad deal.