The two stores Shein ¬ Temu have even gone to court in the United States.

For a few years, Shein has become the fashion store among the younger generations. It has been said that it is the AliExpress of fashion and the company has even been talked about as a threat to some of the most popular clothing brands, such as Zara or H&M. However, now it is Shein who is being threatened by the launch of a new platform that has fully entered its territory.

This is Temu, an app from the Chinese group PDD Holdings that was launched in the United States in September and that offers buyers clothing, fashion accessories and articles, as well as many other product categories, from Chinese sellers at prices very low. 

Since its launch in September, its gross market merchandise value has risen from $3 million to $192 million in January, according to data published by YipitData. 

In the United States, where the e-commerce platform began, it has even gone to court with Shein, which sees this new competitor as a serious threat. But the challenge is not limited to the American country, but the company has already reached Canada and has expanded to other countries , such as Australia and New Zealand.

At the moment, he has not mentioned anything about Europe, where Shein has a large number of consumers , especially since the pandemic began, but the information published by various Chinese media shows that Temu could reach Spain, where he is the third clothing brand with the most sales, behind Zara and Primark, and the first in the online channel. 

A court battle between Temu and Shein

That Temu is gaining more and more clients in a field until now dominated by Shein is something that has become clear in just a few months. But according to the Chinese company, its new competitor is using a legally dubious marketing strategy. So much so that the case has ended up in the US courts . 

Shein accuses Temu of hiring influencers to make “false and misleading statements” against them in their promotions of the new app, according to the complaint filed in a US federal court, reported by Reuters. 

The Chinese company claims that its new competitor asks these content creators to make derogatory comments about Shein. In addition, he accuses the company of creating false accounts on social networks with the Shein logo and its advertising material in their biographies in which users were directed to download the Temu app , making users believe that both brands had an agreement. , according to the documents provided in the lawsuit. “Temu has tried to impersonate Shein and mislead consumers into believing that the brands were associated,” the text of the complaint says. 

For his part, Temu denies having any relationship with these fake accounts , which have already been removed. He affirms so in his motion to dismiss the lawsuit on which the court has not yet ruled. In the same sense, Temu spoke in statements to THE OJBECTIVE: «Since its creation, Temu has only been accused in a lawsuit alleging an infringement of intellectual property, regarding which the company categorically denies all the accusations and is defending its rights”.

Regarding the accusation of using influencers to speak ill of Shein, from Temu they insist that there is nothing punishable in finding people on social networks who consider that they are better than their competition and let their followers know so, even if it is through company request. And it is that this has published job offers with payments ranging from one hundred to one thousand dollars an hour for the influencers who publish this content. 

Shein is now on the other side of the legal process, but has long been the defendant in court battles brought by other brands , mainly over its designs, which many companies consider a copy of theirs. An argument that Temu uses against him: “Coincidentally, this single case has been launched by Shein, which has been accused in more than 70 cases of intellectual property infringement by companies and artists since 2019,” says a spokesperson for the company. platform in statements sent to this newspaper.

In the United States alone, it has 50 lawsuits open for an alleged copyright and trademark infringement , according to local media. Brands like Ralph Lauren, Dr. Martens, and Oakley have accused the company of copying their designs to create the thousands of items it sells. A topic that is also highly criticized on social networks, where there are accounts even dedicated to showing the designs that it copies from brands like Zara. 

From dresses to vacuum cleaners, a catalog halfway between Shein and AliExpress

Temu’s website is partly reminiscent of that of the Chinese giant AliExpress, and it is that although Shein is the one who is fighting against its rapid growth, clothing is not its only or main offer, despite having gained popularity for this product. In fact, she reminds this newspaper that they are not “a fast fashion company , although many people get confused” and that they offer 29 product categories.

When entering its website we can find everything from beauty products to dog collars , blenders, coffee makers and sewing kits, among the thousands of items offered on the web. Clothing, for which it has mainly become known, is one of its many categories, but it does not appear prominently on the main page, just like AliExpress and unlike Shein, which is focused on low-cost fashion . 

Its prices have nothing to envy to any of these two online commerce platforms and they are really low compared to the rest of the market , as is the case with its two competitors, with clothes for less than ten euros and small appliances, such as blenders, for little. more than that price, for example. As the company itself explains, “they are able to offer quality merchandise at such affordable prices through a new generation manufacturing model, which takes innovation in cost savings beyond the supply chain, to product design” .

Shipping times , for the moment, are a maximum of 15 days, as stated on their website, but it is not known if they will increase when arriving in other countries where they do not have distribution centers, as is the case with Shein or AliExpress, although both are increasingly reducing these waits. 

Pending trial in the United States, if the lawsuit is not dismissed, it remains to be seen how much Temu expands and where it actually threatens these Chinese giants.