Running a test purchase on Temu

 

We all love finding a good bargain, especially if it comes from a reliable source. Who wouldn’t be excited to spot an ad for original wireless Lenovo earphones for only 1.45 €?   And since it appeared in the online version of a reputable German newspaper, Der Spiegel, it must be legit, right?   This is exactly the case that we recently stumbled upon, except Spiegel wasn’t the only outlet.   Ads for extremely low-priced products on Temu have appeared in respectable German media, including Stern, Manager Magazin, and many more.   Are these products legit?   Well, as experienced online brand protection experts, we were certainly intrigued by Temu’s unprecedented, wide-reaching ad campaign in Germany and especially by the ad in the above screenshot.   The source is reputable, but the price definitely falls into the too-good-to-be-true category, which is why we decided to do a little investigating.

Screenshot of spiegel.de displaying the ad for Lenovo wireless earphones taken in May 2023

Find out what we discovered!

 

 

Founded in 2022, Temu is one of the youngest e-Commerce ventures to date. Although the company’s headquarters are in Boston, US, its owner is the China-based PDD Holdings that also owns the popular Chinese marketplace Pinduoduo.

 

Temu is a general marketplace offering products in a wide variety of categories, including fashion, home and kitchen, children’s clothing, jewellery, electronics, furniture, toys and games, office supplies, footwear, and much more.

 

The products are displayed in the popular tile format, introduced by social media and used by many other marketplaces, including Wish and AliExpress. The similarities don’t end here: in fact, just like Wish & Co., Temu also tries to attract new customers with heavy discounts and flash sales.

 

 

Screenshot of temu.com advertising special deals in ten separate places

 

 

Temu is currently available in 98 countries, including Australia, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Poland, but the majority of its monthly users are located in the US. The marketplace ships most of its products directly from China, evading the cost of keeping warehouses all over the world.

 

This means that shipping takes a bit longer, between 5-14 business days. However, Temu tends to absorb shipping costs and is thus able to draw customers in with the offer of free shipping. They even offer customers a five-euro bonus if the shipment is late.

 

 

Screenshot of temu.com displaying a 5€ credit for a late shipment

 

 

Since Temu does not publish its financial KPIs, it can only be estimated that the marketplace had a GMV of $60 billion in 2024 and works with millions of sellers.

 

The Temu app has been downloaded 544,85 million times in 2024. Thanks to an aggressive advertising campaign with the slogan: “Shop like a billionaire,” Temu caused a worldwide sensation.

 

 

 

Customer reviews from 2023 to today complain about sloppy customer service, missing items, bad quality products, misleading ads, and even a potentially poisonous product arriving in the mail.

 

 

Screenshot of https://www.bbb.org/us/ma/boston/profile/online-shopping/temucom-0021-553943/customer-reviews displaying customer reviews of Temu from 2023

 

 

Just scrolling through the site, we also noticed dark patterns: language and visual effects that urge customers to act quickly and without thinking.

 

Screenshot from temu.com from 2023 showing dark patterns

 

 

At first glance, the marketplace seemed to feature a lot of bad-quality products, including lookalikes and fakes. Seller information was quite scarce (only a nickname and customer reviews are visible), which means that customers couldn’t be sure who they’re buying from.

 

 

Screenshot displaying a random seller’s shop on Temu from 2023

 

 

Let’s see what else we could uncover with a test purchase on Temu!

 

 

As it was the unbelievably good deal on Lenovo headphones that had gotten us intrigued by Temu, we decided to purchase that item from the marketplace. We chose this listing for 9.19€.

 

 

Screenshot of temu.com taken with our tool screenseal displaying Lenovo earphones

 

Since Temu required a minimum purchase of 10 euros at that time, we added a small item to our cart and headed to checkout.

 

The purchasing process at Temu was straightforward. We placed the product in our cart with a click, gave our delivery address, and were directed to payments. Temu accepts all major payment options, including credit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Klarna, and PayPal.

 

As for delivery, we were offered free shipping by DHL and a delivery date within 7-14 business days. The package arrived earlier than the estimated time frame, just after 5 business days, including the day of ordering. Unfortunately, the good news ended right here.

 

 

Screenshot of our order confirmation page on temu.com

 

 

An image taken of the packaging of the earphones

The first thing we did was inspect the box the earphones came in. Both the carton and the plastic covering were wobbly and thin.   Another interesting thing we discovered was the picture on the box.   It seemed ridiculous, but it’s hard to believe that a brand like Lenovo would do this: the product in the box (black earphones) didn’t match the picture on the outside (white earphones).

 

 

 

Upon trying the product, we noticed that the quality is not up to what we’d expect from Lenovo. It was hard to put them in as the fit was not very good, and wearing them became uncomfortable after a short time. Moreover, the quality of the sound transmitted was very poor. We ran a sound test, and already during setup, we noticed how soft the control signals were, which made it really hard to understand the instructions.

 

Finally, when we tried listening to music, the low quality of these earphones became even more evident. They didn’t transmit the higher and lower range of sound appropriately, which made the otherwise very good song we were listening to bland.

 

All in all, these results were quite what we’d expect from 9.19€ earphones. However, this was definitely not in line with Lenovo’s brand image. Taking all of this into consideration, is it possible that we were dealing with a fake product here?

 

Even though Lenovo’s original XT91 earphones were marketed as budget, they still cost at least twice as much at that time, and the reviews testified to their quality - something our acquired earphones definitely lacked.

 

 

Although Temu does have an IP protection policy, complaints of counterfeits, low-quality lookalikes, and even potentially poisonous products have started surfacing regularly. Temu seems to be a marketplace to watch - albeit for all the wrong reasons.

 

If you’re worried about fake versions of your products making it to Temu (or any other marketplace), contact us, and together we will solve your IP protection issues.