Rich People Shop at Temu, And Several Other Key Learnings
The company Earnest Analytics has published a report on Temu recently, and I thought I would compile a few takeaways from it. Many of these stats are counterintuitive and buck accepted wisdom.
* Temu sales grew 840% between January 2023 and 2024, topping 1100% during the holiday 2023 season.
* Temu's sales in the US have already almost completely replaced AliExpress and Wish.
* Super Bowl ads did not move the needle. Like, at all.
* After being in business for 12 months, the company's Customer Lifetime Value was higher than Walmart's, but still trails Amazon. In fact, after 6 months, customers become more valuable each month. This leads me to believe the quality to value ratio is "good enough".
* Temu's customer base trends towards middle-high income, despite the price points. These last two trends should be worrying for any of the incumbents in the US market.
* Temu continues growing up-market. Temu's sales among customers earning $190k grew faster than any other segment, and customers earnings $55k or less grew the slowest. 40% of the company's customers are making above $130k per year.
All things told, it looks like Temu has been "the ultimate trade-down" the last two years, even among income classes that most would consider rich.
* Dollar Stores have virtually stopped growing, and many think it is from Temu. From last few years to this one, Dollar General went from mid-single digit growth to flat.
One final stat for you: Over 96% Temu's customers shop at Walmart and Amazon. This means they are comparing like for like Chinese suppliers, in many cases. There is also a high overlap with dollar stores and Etsy.
To me, this means that Etsy is in trouble. Not only has it lost its soul, it may lose its heart.
The fact that these customers could be savvy about supply is worrying indeed for Amazon. To me, that indicates its cost to serve is not the only thing that Amazon should be worried about -- differentiation needs to be a close second.
The report indicates that it has yet to take significant share from either Amazon or Walmart (dollar stores, however, are another question), but that both companies do have their eye on the firm. Wise.
