How Amazon is Losing to Shein and Temu

Chelsea Dobrosielski
·3 min read

Shein and Temu’s rapid adoption by U.S. consumers appears to be chipping away at Amazon’s massive market dominance.

Even as Prime Day brings Amazon a surge of business this week, mobile app data gathered by the analytics firm GWS suggests the retail behemoth has experienced a “significant” drop in users in recent months. Since April alone, the number of daily U.S. users has “crashed,” falling from 54 million to 46 million, GWS said, citing data it collected from an opt-in, app-engagement panel it runs.

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Though Amazon still commands more than double the number of daily users of its nearest competitor, international e-commerce rivals like Temu and Shein appear to be benefiting from Amazon’s losses. Temu, which only just launched in the U.S. in September, added nearly 10 million new daily users since the beginning of the year, GWS said. These gains have catapulted it into a shared second place with Walmart as the two retailers’ shopping apps sit around 17 million daily users. Shein, meanwhile, has grown its daily users from 3.1 million to 4.9 million in 2023.

“For years Amazon has gone all but unchallenged when it comes to offering the complete ecommerce package to consumers, and much of its success has been via its mobile app,” GWS CEO Paul Carter said in a statement. “However, mobile analytics data from GWS shows how brand loyalty on retail shopping apps moves quickly during challenging economic times, and retailers need to stay on top of the curve or risk getting left behind.”

Temu bests both Amazon and Shein in terms of amount of time spent on its retail app, with an daily average of 20 minutes per user. Shein and Amazon, meanwhile, command a daily average of 14 minutes and 12 minutes, respectively, GWS said.

Unlike Shein and Temu, however, GWS’ data shows Amazon possessing a much more even demographic balance, with a user base 59 percent female and 41 percent male. Women account for 69 percent of Temu app users and 90 percent of Shein app shoppers.

“While apps like Temu and Shein are seeing significant rises at the moment, expanding their customer bases beyond their faithful female audiences will be crucial for lasting growth and success if they want to pose a genuine threat to Amazon,” Carter added.

GWS found similar results in the United Kingdom, where it estimated Amazon had shed over 1 million daily mobile app users since January, falling from 9.3 million daily shoppers to 8.3 million. Temu, by comparison, gained 3.5 million users in the month following its April U.K launch, GWS said. That number has stayed stable since, with the app bringing in a similar number of users today, it noted. Shein, on the other hand, has doubled its daily users this year to 2 million. eBay, meanwhile, has seen daily mobile users decline by nearly 2 million to 4.2 million, GWS estimated. The firm also offered data on the Lithuanian online marketplace Vinted, which it said brings in 2 million users every day.

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