E-commerce giants of the late ’90s and early ’00s like Amazon and eBay changed how the world shopped. Some of those companies have stuck around, but a new generation of commerce platforms is quickly gaining ground. Ultracheap retailers like Temu, Shein, and AliExpress are winning over customers, luring them in with bargain bin prices on products shipped directly from manufacturers in China. Shopping has also become a core part of business for social media companies — your TikTok feed is both a stream of videos and an endless shelf of products for sale. The Verge’s online shopping section covers how and what we buy and the forces driving this sprawling and opaque market.
In the midst of Donald Trump’s tariff chaos, prices are rising at retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Home Depot, according to data provided to The Verge by Bright Data, which tracks prices week over week. As of May 11th, for example, 21.5 percent of the 1.5 million tracked Amazon products had increased in price. Check out an interactive chart here.
As Donald Trump eliminates the exemption for shipments valued at $800 or less, Wired published a closer look at how Shein, the Chinese fast-fashion retailer that relied on that exemption to keep their prices dirt-cheap, tried to lobby their way out of it: spending millions of dollars on Washington lobbyists, hiring Trump administration alumni, and even sending their president, Donald Tang, to schmooze with the China hawks at the MAGA think tanks. (It didn’t work.)
Drop-shipping packages straight from China to shoppers’ homes was kind of the whole point of retailers like Temu. In response to Donald Trump’s tariffs, Temu now tells Wired that it’s switching to a “local fulfillment model” where orders come from US warehouses. With the de minimis exception officially dead (at least for now), it’s no surprise that retailers are scrambling — especially sites like Temu, whose wide product offerings depended on the exception.
Zulay Kitchen, which makes and sells kitchen gadgets, told CNBC that the company is “temporarily raising” the price of some of its products as it works to move production to India, Mexico, and other locations not subject to Trump’s 145 percent tariff on China.
Another seller, Pure Daily Care, plans to “stagger price increases” while trying to stretch existing inventory in case the US and China reach an agreement, CNBC reports.
The marketplace runs on small businesses all over the world — but Donald Trump’s tariffs are causing uncertainty. In a blog post today, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman said the company will add features like shopping pages surfacing domestic sellers, which could be useful for shoppers who want to avoid tariffs.
Etsy also updated its seller handbook with a tariff section providing advice. It’s an interesting look into the many moving parts of global trade that are upended by Trump’s trade war.
Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to blow up Shein’s supply chain, which heavily depends on Chinese manufacturing. Bloomberg reports that the Chinese government didn’t like Shein’s plans to move some of its manufacturing out of China — Shein wants to avoid tariffs as much as it can, and the Chinese government reportedly is looking to minimize manufacturing job losses.
[bloomberg.com]
Donald Trump suspended a 100-year-old law this week that companies shipping online orders directly from China depended on. The de minimis exemption was used as a loophole by Temu, Shein, Amazon, and countless drop shipping operations. Check out my explainer below.
Would you buy a designer handbag from Walmart? Through a partnership with Rebag, shoppers can buy secondhand luxury accessories like Louis Vuitton wallets and Chanel shoulder bags from Walmart’s site.
The move may be in part a response to Hermés Birkin lookalikes — “The Walmart Birkin” — that went viral earlier this month and quickly sold out.
The ultra cheap retailer giving Amazon a run for its money is piloting an ads system for merchants, The Information reports. Similar to Amazon’s system, sellers can pay for increased visibility in search results as well as display ads on Temu’s site.
[The Information]
After being banned from India in 2020 along with other Chinese apps, Shein won a rare exception — but it comes with strict parameters.
Among them: the fast fashion giant must hand over customer data to its Indian partner Reliance Retail. Shein products will also be produced locally, with government security audits.
The ultra-cheap online shopping app was also Apple’s most popular app in the US in 2023. On this year’s list, Temu is followed by Threads, TikTok, and ChatGPT.
NBC News reports that merchants on platforms like Etsy, eBay, and Redbubble are selling t-shirts, stickers and other products inspired by the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week.
Like clockwork, we see breaking news events followed by the immediate availability of merchandise thanks to dropshippers and print on demand services. It happened after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, too.
Can the legal system protect the vibe of a creator? And what if that vibe is basic?
The TikTok show Boy Room tours the disgusting bedrooms of men, cigarette butts, dirty clothes, and all. It’s gross, funny, and weirdly revealing — and now much more sanitized via an Amazon partnership.
In an HGTV-esque reboot, the show will now give home makeovers featuring Amazon furniture and decor. It serves as a front end to Amazon: Boy Room is also promoting the products via affiliate marketing.
Amazon announced a $20-and-under “Haul” section yesterday to compete with platforms like Temu — and it’s already filled with questionable listings.
ModernRetail rounded up a few, and scrolling through Amazon, it’s not totally clear to me whether images are AI-generated or just very poorly edited (probably both). You have to hand it to Amazon, though: it does look exactly like Temu.
The company announced today it’s opening up its AI ads tool to all advertisers — so prepare to see more AI content on your feed.
TikTok’s Symphony Creative Studio lets advertisers remix content and generate new videos promoting products in just a few minutes. Some of those ads even include AI avatars resembling humans.
Bloomberg reports the ultra-cheap online retailer will face an investigation over whether it’s doing enough to stop the sale of illegal products.
Temu is considered a Very Large Online Platform under the Digital Services Act, meaning it must comply with strict rules to avoid hefty fines. The EU had previously requested information from Temu about how it mitigates the risk of illegal products.
A t-shirt company is running thousands of ads claiming to donate a portion of sales to Trump, Harris, and other political causes, 404 reports. In reality, the company appears to be based abroad — which means it’s either lying about making campaign contributions, or illegally making campaign contributions.
