Lower prices luring Brits to sites like Temu, but product quality concerns loom

• Lower prices, product variety and novelty products top factors drawing Brits to ecommerce platforms like Temu
• But nearly two in five consumers don't trust deep-discount sites to provide good quality products

Online retail brand Temu first launched in the UK in early 2023. Months later, the brand clinched the ‘number one shopping app by downloads’ title in the country. As of this year, the UK is now one of the retailer’s largest markets, and European and American sellers can now sell on the platform as well.

In an earlier piece, we looked at how aware Britons are of the brand. Here, we look at what’s driving consumers in Great Britain to shop from deep-discount sites like Temu and if they grapple with any concerns when doing so.

Money matters - lower prices top factor attracting Brits to sites like Temu

To begin with, nearly half of all Britons (47%) say they don’t shop from sites like Temu. 

But among those who have shopped from Temu in the past six months, lower prices is the driving force nudging a majority of them (79%) to ecommerce platforms, followed by a wider variety of products (37%) at a far distant second. Just over one in ten (12%) Brits say they shop from Temu-like platforms to buy products otherwise in the country.

Shopping from sites like Temu isn’t a stress-free experience entirely, YouGov data shows. For example, 71% of Britons say they are worried about product quality when making purchases from new commerce sites. Further, 37% of Britons say they aren’t very trusting of deep-discount ecommerce platforms to provide good quality products - a sentiment more likely to be echoed by women than men (38% vs. 35%).

Nearly half of Britons (49%) are concerned about whether the products listed on the sites are sourced ethically. Women in Great Britain are considerably more likely than men to be concerned about this (56% vs. 42%).

Further, more than two in five (43%) are worried about the exchange, returns or refund policies being offered and equal proportions of consumers are concerned about long delivery times (42%) and unclear customer services processes (42%).

In an earlier piece, we discussed how most Britons have heard of Temu but a majority haven’t shopped from the site.

Temu’s got consumers’ attention, Temu’s got the price tags to attract shoppers. But perhaps the brand could focus on convincing shoppers of its product quality and assure them of reliable customer service to boost conversions and make the best of its awareness levels as of today.

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Methodology:

YouGov polled 700 GB adults online on April 12, 2024. The survey was carried out through YouGov Surveys: Self-serve. Data is weighted by age, gender, race, political affiliation, education level and region. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Self-serve.

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