Shop on Temu if you want, but doing so has its consequences

Okay, I get it. The fact that I, an employee of a Swiss online shop, am writing an unfavourable article about China-based Temu is about as surprising as a white Christmas at the North Pole. It’s not like an FC Barcelona fan would write a poem lauding the football prowess of Real Madrid, is it? So, if you don’t find any of what I’m about to say credible, I totally understand.

One reason I’ve been researching Temu is that Galaxus is currently expanding its range by launching own-brand products. I’ve already published articles on this here and here.

Both generated similar responses from the Community. These products look like they’re from Temu, only more expensive. Why’s Galaxus doing this when we’ve already got Temu? From China? Bound to be rubbish, then. You get the picture.

The fact is, most Galaxus products come from China. Just like the stuff you find on Temu. However, as I’m about to explain, there are a few differences.

Quality without the control

Four-packs of women’s briefs for 9.64 francs, a mini karaoke machine with two speakers for just under 12 francs, a dozen rainbow-coloured pencils for 3.38 francs…that’s pretty much the level of Temu’s prices. You can get a pair of men’s shoes for ten euros or a women’s velvet dress for under 15 francs. The stuff is so cheap that fellow editor and fashion expert Stephanie decided to test the quality for herself.

To put it mildly, it’s Russian roulette. It’s perfectly possible to get products of satisfactory quality at a low price. A lot of the time, however, Temu delivers items that look completely different from the photos. We in the editorial team have certainly tested headphones that look suspiciously similar to the Apple AirPods Max.

Basically, we editors know what you get when you order from Temu. And Galaxus isn’t the only one to have put the quality of the site’s products under the microscope. Just recently, experts from the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE) in Germany examined twelve products ordered from Temu for an ARD documentary (in German) about the company. Their verdict was devastating. Cables on extension sockets melted, an electric chainsaw was found to have no safety mechanism and a curling iron only produced around half the power it was described as having. The experts even found a VDE test mark on the plug of an electrical appliance. They’d never seen nor tested the plug before, let alone certified it.

When the Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) carried out a review of Temo products, 18 out of the 19 items fell short. According to the organisation, none of the toys fully complied with EU regulations. Eighteen of them posed safety risks to children, including cuts, suffocation, strangulation, puncture wounds and toxic material. A rattle for babies, for example, had metal bells with sharp edges.

When Temu’s confronted with test results like these, the company almost always responds in the same way. That is, to say the offending product’s been removed from the site. The use of these admissions seems minimal, to say the least. Third-party sellers list millions of products on Temu, with hundreds or thousands of new products making their way onto the platform every day. Temu says sellers are obliged to comply with regulations and guarantee the safety of their products. But how good can these internal checks really be when almost every TV documentary or magazine report unearths unsafe or harmful products?

The CE mark, for example, is supposed to certify safe, environmentally friendly and non-harmful products permitted for sale in the EU. Manufacturers can also use the CE mark without third-party testing. However, if they do, they have to carry out and document the tests themselves. When it comes to Temu products, manufacturers often seem to just do the first part.

Not much help when issues arise

In addition to Temu’s lax approach to testing regulations and product safety, it’ll often leave you without help if you have a problem with a product. After all, reading instruction manuals in Chinese might be a bit much for you. EU law stipulates that Temu or the product manufacturer has to provide an EU-based contact for customers. Spot checks have repeatedly shown products to include non-existent or fake contact details.

In contrast to its apparent laissez-faire approach to customer service, Temu works hard to ensure you hit the «buy» button. There’s a 90-day return guarantee, a price guarantee and a delivery guarantee. The latter is obviously intended to reassure people who have doubts about the shop’s legitimacy. Time and again, customers post comments in forums and on review platforms claiming never to have received the items they ordered on Temu. If you don’t receive your order, you can report it to Temu and supposedly get your money back. That is, as long as you can get hold of customer service, wherever they happen to be located.

In Switzerland, Temu’s only base is an office address in Basel. Now, although there is indeed a tall office building at Aeschengraben 29, you might have trouble finding a Temu employee there. That’s because the rental company based in the building offers a «virtual office» service. It says so on the website under the «prestigious business addresses» heading.

I assume Temu only uses the Basel address as a legal base.

I wanted to check whether electronic products on Temu have a two-year warranty, as is the case in the EU and Switzerland. The chatbot on the Temu site couldn’t answer that, nor could it provide me with an e-mail link so I could submit my question elsewhere. There’s no option to bring a real person into the chat either. Even if there were, the answer to my question would be «no». Chinese suppliers selling items on Temu don’t provide any guarantee that their products will last or work properly.

Buy at your own risk

Temu avoids racking up costs wherever possible. Acting as an intermediary between customers in Europe and sellers in China, Temu can ignore the two-year warranty. You’ll only have this if you buy a product from retailers based in the EU or Switzerland.

When it comes to items bought on Temu, there’s no such thing as product liability. So if the cable on your bargain-basement power supply unit ends up getting fried and setting fire to your home, it’ll be nobody’s problem but yours. In the EU and Switzerland, on the other hand, manufacturers and retailers are liable if something like that happens despite proper use. As a result, manufacturers and retailers put a lot of time and energy into product tests. Temu doesn’t run up these costs. Instead, the company seems to be pouring money into its app.

Manipulation with intent

The Temu app might as well be a casino one. Wheels of fortune and slot machines continually pop up, giving users the chance to win discounts. With voucher packages, extra voucher packages, voucher bundles, secrets hidden in golden eggs and vouchers awarded for product reviews, the app constantly encourages you to fill your shopping cart.

And that’s not all. It feels like half the prices on the site have been crossed out and replaced with a lower one. You can also see how many times an item’s already been purchased on a given day, how many (or few) are still in stock and how customers rate the product. Spoiler alert: at least 4.8 stars on average.

These manipulative shop designs, known as dark patterns, have made Temu a target for consumer protection organisations and EU authorities. A few months ago, Temu promised to make improvements after being hit with a successful lawsuit (article in German).

Despite this, the same old ploy has continued: everything’s so cheap that you, the consumer, switch off your brain. Do I really need this? Can a product at this price really be good? If Temu gets its way, there’ll be no space left in your head for questions like these.

Airfreight takes a toll on the environment

Customers who’ve fallen victim to Temu’s trickery can often look forward to getting their hands on their parcel after just a few days. Temu promises delivery within six to twelve working days. However, this is only possible because Temu parcels are transported into Europe by plane.

Incidentally, the quantities are enormous. An Austrian business magazine has reported (in German) that alongside fast fashion corporation Shein, Temu is putting a squeeze on air freight capacities. As many as 100 cargo planes take off from China per day, with Temu packages alone accounting for around 4,000 tonnes of freight. To put this into perspective, a cargo version of a Boeing 777 can transport about 100 tonnes of freight at once.

This is disastrous for the environment. As determined by the Life Cycle Assessment Research Group at Zurich’s University of Applied Sciences, transporting cargo by air requires 50 times more fuel than doing so by ship (article in German). For example, 77 per cent of the total CO₂ emissions generated by a food container ordered on Temu are down to air transportation. If a traditional retailer had sent the container from China by ship, the proportion of CO₂ emissions generated by transportation would only be 12 per cent. Since Temu ships its cargo by plane, the company contributes much more to global warming than companies that use ship transportation.

Instead of questioning its own logistics or the logic behind throwaway products, Temu prefers to plant trees. To do that, the company’s partnered up with Trees for the Future. According to Temu’s website, almost 17 million trees have already been planted since the start of the partnership – all financed by Temu shoppers who’ve paid 32 cents to plant a tree at checkout. So, is this enough to put the company’s carbon footprint right?

Well, no. Experts see a risk of greenwashing in tree-planting initiatives. While the number of trees planted may seem impressive at first glance, the benefit is often negligible. Trees are planted willy-nilly, often dying as seedlings or falling victim to forest fires. More importantly, they make a pretty minimal contribution to CO₂ reduction. Experts are clear that CO₂ emissions should be avoided first and foremost instead of offset.

Unscrupulous manufacturers

Temu’s also faced criticism for avoiding taxes and duties, using tricks to dodge customs charges. In Switzerland, for example, there’s an exemption limit of 62 francs. Goods with a value below that aren’t liable, making them duty- and tax-free. However, if you order products that come to a higher total value, Temu won’t necessarily pay Swiss VAT. The first trick Temu uses is simply to declare the goods have a lower value. It justifies this by stating that its prices include VAT. Trick number two is splitting orders into several parcels, each with a value below the customs limit. Although this is actually illegal, it’s virtually undetectable when goods are entering the country. The tsunami of parcels is simply too large, with hundreds of thousands arriving every day.

That means Switzerland’s likely to be missing out on roughly CHF 24 million in revenue per year – and the figure’s rising all the time. Temu’s exploiting a loophole in Swiss regulations here. As Watson has pointed out, Temu is a so-called platform provider, so doesn’t owe VAT (article in German). Still, at least Switzerland closed the loophole on 1 January 2025. The EU was even quicker. Temu’s been subject to VAT there since the beginning of 2024. Plus, there are ongoing efforts to abolish the duty-free limit of 150 euros.

As a platform, Temu could well be less affected by all this than the numerous sellers it accommodates. The sellers, after all, are the ones responsible for ensuring that customer purchases are handled correctly and that goods are declared in accordance with the law. If there are any violations, Temu blocks the seller. It’s enough to put small suppliers hoping to make a fortune on the platform out of business. For Temu, however, this isn’t an issue. It’s probably quick to find new ones to fill the gaps. The balance of power clearly lies in Temu’s favour. Dictating conditions right down to the price of products, the company imposes penalties for criticism while shirking responsibility when things go wrong (article in German).

Drowning out the competition

Temu’s been around in the USA since 2022 and in Europe since 2023. The company says it was founded in 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts by former employees of Chinese shopping platform Pinduoduo. However, Temu’s still tied to the apron strings of its Chinese parent company. In fact, it’s a subsidiary owned completely by PDD Holdings, an ultra-secretive company. Despite being listed on the stock exchange, there’s little information on its turnover and profit. In March 2024, the Financial Times tried to shed light on that – with limited success.

Evidently, PDD Holdings is financing its US and European expansion projects with the profits it makes in its home market. Its start-up losses are estimated at several billion US dollars, partly because Temu spent more on advertising than it generated through sales. Temu floods platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram with ads and videos of influencers who’ve been paid to gush over products they’ve bought on the site.

The strategy behind this is clear: to take market share from other online shops by way of aggressive growth. It’s also to increase consumption, as customers who wouldn’t necessarily buy the same products at higher prices are now keen to hit the «order» button. Experts at the Financial Times expect Temu to break even in 2026, if not before.

What’ll happen next?

It remains to be seen whether Temu products will still be this cheap in a few years’ time. On the one hand, there are various efforts by the EU and the US to close the loopholes that Temu’s currently skilfully exploiting. On the other, further regulation ensuring more responsibility and higher costs for Temu is on the way.

But the most important factor is us – consumers in the West. Will we continue to be swayed by cheap products? Or will it dawn on us that most of the stuff on Temu is useless? That our apparent need for it was simply manufactured by rock-bottom prices?

Will we take an interest in the way many of Temu’s products are manufactured? Will we care about them having to be thrown away after one or two uses?

At least we’ve found answers to those questions at Digitec and Galaxus. Our own-brand products are high quality. And since we don’t have to invest in marketing and can take advantage of our own logistics infrastructure, they’re also fairly priced. We also keep the products’ carbon footprint to a minimum and make sure no one in the value chain is exploited.

What are your thoughts on Temu? Let me and the Community know in the comments. I’m looking forward to reading your views.