Temu and Shein are rapidly losing their dominance in the U.S. app store with the impending suspension of the minimum tax exemption on May 2nd. Cross-border e-commerce sellers, you need to know about this industry shakeup! Temu has plummeted from #3 to #85 in just two weeks, and Shein has fallen from #7 to #80 - a clear sign that the revolution of shopping directly from China is facing its first real market correction.
Demand hasn't disappeared - as evidenced by other Chinese apps surging in the opposite direction. This decline actually represents a strategic ceding of U.S. market share by Temu and Shein, as they are reducing the advertising spend that they used to support their rankings and downloads. This collapse in rankings underscores the fact that Temu's and Shein's meteoric rise was heavily reliant on aggressive ad spending, a level of spending that has become unsustainable in the new market conditions.
The biggest problem is that, according to Reuters, Temu's average daily U.S. ad spend in early April was down $31% from March, while Shein's was down $19%. Of Temu's nearly 30,000 ads in Meta's ad inventory, only a handful remain active in the U.S. at this time.
This is an inevitable market correction for a business model built on regulatory arbitrage. When the duty-free minimum was expanded from $200 to $800 in 2016, it set the stage for Temu, Shein, and later Amazon Haul. U.S. Customs data show that minimum duty-free imports exploded from $9.2 billion in 2016 to $54.5 billion in 2023, with Chinese sellers accounting for nearly 60% of all shipments.
For Taiwanese sellers, this market correction may present new opportunities. Specific platforms may rise and fall, but demand for low-cost products remains strong among U.S. consumers. With Temu and Shein in temporary retreat, other Chinese shopping platforms such as DHgate briefly surged to the No. 2 spot on the U.S. App Store last week, thanks largely to viral videos on TikTok that exposed luxury brands' markups by Chinese manufacturers.
Do you have any cross-border e-commerce questions that you would like to be answered immediately? Don't hesitate to add our LINE, the green circle is waiting for you:https://line.me/ti/p/g2Vc38nLnR
# Cross-border E-commerce # Amazon Global Store # Taiwan Sellers # Market Adjustment # Customs Policy # E-commerce Entrepreneurs # Cross-border Brands # U.S. Markets
EN 
ZH_TW 
ZH