After de minimis change, Temu’s selection is now mostly ‘local’ items
Only a few days ago, Temu was the way to buy cheap goods directly from China. The Trump administration may be changing all that.
Now, when a user opens the Temu app in the U.S., nearly every product has a green sticker below its image that says “local.” This means that the item is warehoused and sourced in the U.S. It’s a very different assortment than what most people have come to expect from Temu. Before, the app showcased hundreds of items that were mostly from sellers based in China.
This shift comes a day after President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on imports. Specifically, the new rules suspended the de minimis loophole, which allowed items under $800 to enter the U.S. untaxed. E-commerce platforms like Temu and Shein — which source from sellers directly in China and have the items shipped to customers — relied on de minimis to keep prices so low.
On Tuesday, the USPS stopped accepting packages from China, which caused chaos in the shipping world. Imports were being turned away at the border leading to confusion in the cargo world, Wired reported. On Wednesday, the USPS said it would now begin accepting packages from China again, though it did not disclose how it would handle the new de minimis rules.
It’s unclear if this Temu change is due to the new de minimis rules or the Lunar New Year in China, which ends on Feb. 12. (Technically, Chinese workers were on vacation between Jan. 28 and Feb. 3, though many businesses will be shut down for two weeks.)
Many have wondered how platforms like Temu would respond to the tariff changes. “If the de minimis threshold is removed, some form of Temu will remain,” Juozas Kaziukėnas, founder of Marketplace Pulse, previously told Modern Retail in a conversation before Trump’s executive orders were announced. “It will perhaps not be as cheap as it was in the past, but it’s hoping that it will still be cheap enough for people to come back to it.”
Indeed, both Temu and Shein have been making changes over the last year to depend less on China. Temu, for example, has been actively seeking out more U.S.-based sellers. It also also been showcasing more expensive items like a stainless steel ice cream maker for $1,600 in an attempt to shift its perception as a cheap-product-only platform. Shein has been trying to woo more domestic brands, as well. Those efforts, however, would likely change the selection and make them less of a bargain destination.
For now, Temu’s selection seems very similar to what it offered before, though the warehouse sourcing has shifted. That seems to be because most of the products are still from Chinese brands but are already warehoused in the U.S. One $6 vegetable slicer showcased on the app, for example, was sold by a Chinese company called Wanrong but listed as available from a “local warehouse.”
Now that the USPS has resumed accepting packages from China, the selection may change once again. Similarly, when the Lunar New Year ends, the selection may also change. All the same, unless de minimis is brought back, ultra-cheap apps like Temu will likely look very different over the next few months.