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Temu dropshipping: Pros, cons and alternatives

Last updated: 18.12.2024

Learn everything you should know about Temu dropshipping and its top alternatives

Key takeaways

Temu’s bright branding and lack of automated dropshipping tools can become a big challenge for dropshippers
Alibaba and AliExpress provide direct dropshipping support with integrations that simplify order and payment management.
WorldFirst enables dropshippers to manage sales in multiple currencies with local payment options and zero transaction fees.

Introduction

Dropshipping can be a viable business model for new e-commerce sellers who want to focus on marketing their online store without worrying about managing inventory or fulfilling orders.

While margins can be low, you get to start with low upfront costs.

Temu is a newcomer in the e-commerce space, being only launched in 2022. But it has quickly gained popularity across the globe.

By 2023, Temu’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) reached $15.1 billion, a significant increase from $290 million in 2022
By January 2024, Temu’s mobile app had been downloaded over 47.7 million times

Temu still has a small market share, but it has positioned itself as a low-cost alternative to giants like Amazon.

But can e-Commerce sellers leverage Temu’s low retail prices to kickstart their dropshipping business. Is Temu a viable option for dropshipping? Let’s take a look:

What is Temu?

Pronounced as ‘Tee Moo,’ Temu is a global e-commerce platform headquartered in the US and owned by PDD Holdings, the same company that owns Pinduoduo in China. Temu is able to utilise its parent company’s existing network of local manufacturers to offer products at competitive prices.

While still new, Temu offers numerous potential advantages to sellers, including:

Comparatively low prices
Large product catalogue
Constant discounts and offers
Price adjustment (If the list price of the item you bought gets reduced within 30 days of purchase, Temu pays the price difference)
90 days return policy with a 100% payment refund

Can you use Temu for dropshipping?

Temu doesn’t officially support or promote dropshipping. It’s a B2C platform like Amazon and eBay, and its target audience mainly includes retail customers looking to purchase products directly.

Here’s the official statement about dropshipping on Temu’s website

Source

Does that mean it’s impossible to use Temu for dropshipping? Not really. Many sellers still use Temu for dropshipping by manually placing orders on the marketplace whenever they receive a new order from a customer.Since Temu doesn’t support dropshipping directly, there’s no way to automatically import product information or share tracking links. Sellers have to manually manage everything.

The challenges of dropshipping with Temu

Indirectly dropshipping from Temu is neither a reliable nor a long-term business model. There are many challenges that come with it.

The biggest challenge is the inability to customise packaging and shipping labels. Temu ships all orders in bright orange packaging, prominently featuring its logo.

If your customers receive packages from Temu when they actually ordered from your website, it could impact brand loyalty and trust. Your customers could also just directly go to Temu and buy the products themselves. You’ll price products higher than Temu to build profit margins, but customers have no reason to pay extra for the same items.

As a result, you could also receive a large number of refund requests from customers or even get accused of fraud, giving your online store a bad reputation.

Open a World Account for free

Open 15+ local currency accounts with local account details
Direct CNH payments to 1688.com
Pay suppliers, partners and staff in 40+ currencies and 130+ destinations
Collect secure payments from 100+ marketplaces and payment gateways, including Amazon, AliExpress, Paypal and Shopify
Lock in currency conversion rates for up to 24 months

Temu dropshipping alternatives

Here are some dropshipping alternatives that you can consider

Alibaba dropshipping

Alibaba is a global B2B marketplace that also supports dropshipping. There’s a dedicated section on Alibaba’s website where you can find suppliers who can dropship for your business.

Alibaba dropshipping lets you import the entire product list and information automatically to your Shopify or WooCommerce online store. You can manage orders, shipments and supplier payments through your Alibaba account’s dashboard.

In case you’re selling on marketplaces like eBay and Amazon or have your online store hosted on a different platform, you’ll need to manually manage orders–add shipping details for each order and provide those details to customers.

AliExpress dropshipping

AliExpress dropshipping works similarly to Alibaba. There’s a dedicated section on the AliExpress website where you can find products that can be dropshipped.

When a customer places an order in your store, you forward the order details to your AliExpress dropshipper who then packs and ships the order to your customer. You charge the customer and the AliExpress dropshipper charges you.

→ Take a look at our head-to-head Alibaba vs AliExpress comparison to decide which one of the two is better for your business

Pay supplier and collect marketplace payments with one global account

As a dropshipper, you’ll want to make sure that you can manage all your sales income from different sites and marketplaces – and in multiple different currencies – in one place, in a cost-effective and efficient way.

Here’s how we can help.

WorldFirst is a one-stop global payment provider that supports online sellers and SMEs dealing with international trade. The multi-currency account allows businesses to open 15+ local currency accounts for sending, receiving and holding funds in international balances. Supported currencies include GBP, USD, EUR, AUD, JPY, NZD, SGD, HKD, CNH and CAD.

With the World Account, you can receive your sales income in major currencies with the speed and ease of local payments from 100+ marketplaces, including AliExpress, Amazon and Shopify. Plus, you can keep funds in your account and use them to pay dropshipping suppliers in 40+ currencies.

Disclaimer: The information contained is general only and largely our views. Before acting on the information you should consider whether it is appropriate for you, in light of your objectives, financial situation or needs. Although information has been obtained from and is based upon multiple sources the author believes to be reliable, we do not guarantee its accuracy and it may be incomplete or condensed. All opinions, estimates, mentioned products/services and referenced material constitute the author’s own judgement as of the date of the briefing and are subject to change without notice. WorldFirst shall not be responsible for any losses or damages arising from your reliance of such information.

Written by Jim Vrondas, Country Manager ANZ at WorldFirst

Based in Sydney, Jim is responsible for the WorldFirst business across Australia and New Zealand. He brings with him over 25 years of experience helping Business Owners, CFO’s and Treasury Managers overcome the challenges with cross border payments and navigating volatile foreign exchange markets.