‘Few could have predicted this scenario just one year ago’: Temu and Shein dominating Aussie retail
Ultra-cheap Chinese online retailers Temu and Shein managed close to $3 billion in annual sales in Australia during the last financial year, a new Roy Morgan report shows.
The new data shows that 3.8 million Australians aged 14+ are buying from Temu at least once over 12 months, while 2 million are buying at least once from Shein. Broken down in dollar amounts, that’s an estimated $1.7 billion in sales through Amazon-competitor Temu, and over $1.1 billion for fast fashion retailer Shein.
Despite online memes of odd-sized items arriving at houses, and the lack of quality control regarding products, most Shein and Temu shoppers are return customers, with 76% of Shein shoppers and 80% of Temu shoppers buying at least twice from each platform during the last twelve months.
Many are what Roy Morgan dubbed “high frequency buyers”, with 42% of Shein shoppers and 48% of Temu shoppers buying four or more times over 12 months.
The rise of these cheap retailers can be mapped against the rising cost-of-living crisis – the number of people shopping each month on Temu has grown by 32% — from 1.26 million in the Oct-Dec 2023 quarter, to 1.66 million in the April-June 2024 quarter — while Shein’s shopper base has grown 34%, up from 830,000 monthly shoppers to more than 1.1 million over the same time period.
Roy Morgan further predicts that “if the growth in customer numbers continues in line with the recent two quarters,” Temu will soon hit, “and possibly surpass” $2 billion in annual sales, with Shein to push past $1.3 billion Australian revenue a year, should current trends continue.
“It’s been extraordinary to witness the continued rise of these ultra cheap platforms, especially over the last nine months, where they have enjoyed the kind of growth that Australian retailers can only dream of in this climate,” said Laura Demasi, Roy Morgan’s head of retail research, social, and consumer trends.
“Few could have predicted this scenario just one year ago. I can’t think of another retailer that has seen a hike of 30% in customers in such a short time, especially now – other than Amazon, who is already mounting a fight back against these platforms at the global level.
“These numbers confirm that the ‘trading down’ phenomenon is real. Every month more and more Australians –both young and old – are trading down to these platforms to stretch their dollars further, redirecting billions of dollars away from Australian retailers.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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The lede of “Temu and Shein dominating Aussie retail” is quite bullish by referring to their “$3 billion in annual sales “.
One wonders what Coles ($40.5b), or Woolworths ($64.3b), or Aldi ( $10b+), or Bunnings ($18.5b) etc. should be described as. Or is it just headline hyperbole … (maybe we could call it Dominate-Tricks).
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