Temu – which I had posted about previously, had started to advertise “up to 90% savings on tools” and similar. I’ve been seeing those ads everywhere.
Temu has also been offering hefty influencer incentives, and I already started seeing recommendations for Temu tools on social media and YouTube.
Personally, I will NOT download the app, I will NOT shop at the store.
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The company employ numerous high-urgency sales tactics on their website, and so I wasn’t surprised to see how many incentives Temu is looking to throw at influencers who might promote them.
I want to share with you an email that came in after I first posted about the discount retailer. You will find similar terms on Temu’s public “affiliate recruitment” page.
See Also: Would You Buy Tools from Temu?
Subject: Business Paid Collab Invites to Make Money from Temu
This wasn’t an “intro to Temu” email, it was a “make money” message.
Introductory emails of this nature are all too common these days. Many marketers no longer say “here’s our brand (or product) and how it’s different (or better),” they introduce their tools or brands by saying “make money with us,” and focus solely on that.
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Hi dear,
This is Vera from TEMU. We really appreciate your influence and are honored to invite you to collaborate on our Affiliate Campaign!
👉You can click [link removed] to see the affiliate page or sign up directly to join the program.
The link had a referral code, suggesting that the Temu employee might receive monetary compensation for signing me up into their program, especially given some of the influencer incentives that are mentioned below.
Our core benefits:
âś…Free
âś…NO experience, NO followers & NO barriers!
âś…Earn $5 on every new user’s referral download
âś…$10 extra bonus for every 3 new referrals up to 30 new users($100)
âś…Extra 30% Off discounts for referrals!
âś…UP to 20% commission from their first order
âś…Win an EXTRA $3,000 bonus every 3 days
âś…The affiliates will get $10 after the affiliate they referred earns their first commission
âś…Low time commitment: a few seconds a day to share the code & link
âś…Free products if the affiliates are social media influencers!
Let’s break this down.
Earn $5 on every new user’s referral download
In other words, every time a new user downloads the app, the influencer gets $5. No purchases are necessary, this is $5 each, just for convincing someone to download the app to their mobile device.
$10 extra bonus for every 3 new referrals up to 30 new users($100)
From this it seems that 30 referrals of new users would net the influencer (30 x $5) + ($100)= $250, just for getting those new people to sign up for the shopping app.
Extra 30% Off discounts for referrals!
Temu has “new user gift” coupon bundle offers on their website, all of which require that you download the app.
I would be willing to bet that the 30% discount given to affiliates to share with readers or followers also requires users to download the app.
UP to 20% commission from their first order
They say similar on the website without giving much details – “up to 20% commission.” I’d guess it’s based on order value.
So, they offer a 30% discount and up to 20% commission, and are paying to just to get people to download the app.
Win an EXTRA $3,000 bonus every 3 days
It seems they’re practically throwing money at influencers to sign people up.
The affiliates will get $10 after the affiliate they referred earns their first commission
This means there are incentives to sign people up for the app, push sales, and sign up more affiliates who can do the same.
The form of collaboration:
Click the link above to register and generate your exclusive affiliate code and link. Then you can use your code and link to earn the commission from referring new users and their first orders.
In this way, you can get the commission and we get new users and the GMV they bring in. One of the websites [link removed] we collaborated with has already earned more than $3,000 commissions.And pls tell me your affiliate code and link that sign up through the link above. By registering from our source, you can be our priority user. We can better ensure the security of your account and avoid being banned. In addition we will give you priority when we launch some new features and exclusive benefits in the future.
We also would like to provide you with a budget for a paid partnership, so I’d like to ask for your media kit and rates.
There are some parts from this to highlight:
Click the link above to register…
And pls tell me your affiliate code and link that sign up through the link above. By registering from our source, you can be our priority user.
It really does sound like they’re incentivized to recruit new affiliates too.
We also would like to provide you with a budget for a paid partnership, so I’d like to ask for your media kit and rates.
So they want to talk about a paid partnership as well, right off the bat?
Let’s say that I signed up for the program (I certainly will NOT) and encouraged 100 people to give it a try. Of those people, let’s say 5 place an order. As I understand it, I’d receive $600 (100 x $5, plus $100 bonus) plus up to 20% commission on the orders, plus whatever payment the “paid partnership” involved.
Under their “earn up to $100,000 per month” messaging on their affiliate recruitment webpage, they have a rotation of example earnings.
- C***m earned $17,984.03
- O***i earned $221.92
- 9***0 earned $1,608.74
- g***z earned $2,167.24
- K***8 earned $1,801.89
- g***s earned $304,108.07
- L***S earned $2,689.66
- i***o earned $268.21
- T***m earned $99,739.55
- h***o earned $1,273.03
- S***s earned $2,625.16
Maybe these are real, maybe not. Will affiliates earn that much? It’s unlikely. The benefit is in encouraging affiliates to try.
Here’s a summary of what they’re offering:
Paid partnership – (presumably) money for just talking about the brand.
App Referrals – money for getting new users to download the app.
Affiliate Referral – money for signing up other affiliates.
“Free products” for social media influencers.
Discount codes to share – presumably only redeemable via the app.
Commissions – money for purchases referred users make.
Just as Temu seems to use every online shopping trick in the book to sell tools and other products, the company seems to be offering every incentive possible to get customers and influencers to encourage their friends, family, and followers to download the app and start shopping.
I’ve started seeing nonsense articles from mass media sites, such as “Amazon vs. Temu, where should you shop?”
There are also a growing number of videos on YouTube that focus specifically on Temu tools and woodworking accessories. In one, the YouTube has in their comments section the phrase “it’s not a scam.”
What does it say about the tools and retailer one is promoting, presumably with monetary incentives, if they feel compelled to add “it’s not a scam?”
I can see the potential appeal, as both a tool user/customer, and as an affiliate. Temu offers cheap products, and the opportunity to earn a lot of money through download referrals and commissions.
But, there are too many reasons I don’t trust the retailer enough to order anything from them. Knowing how many incentives Temu was offering me as a potential affiliate, I doubt I could trust anything positive I hear about them online.
With a typical affiliate program, a bad-faith recommendation might lead to a return, which would reverse any fees or commissions an affiliate might have received. With Temu’s program, it seems affiliates can earn a large sum just for getting new users to download the app.
Looking online, there’s discussion of the affiliate commission rate as being:
- 5% for orders under $50
- 10% for orders between $50 and $99.99
- 20% for orders $100 and up
Let’s say someone convinces you to download the app, and you buy a $10.73 drill bit set with free shipping. The commission to that affiliate will be $0.54, compared to a $5 (plus bonuses) reward for getting you to download the app.
It seems that Temu REALLY wants you to download the app, and they’re offering huge incentives to try to enlist affiliates to help them do it.
I will not download the app, nor will I order from the company. I will not recommend the app or products. No amount of savings or potential monetary earnings can convince me otherwise. There are too many red flags.
I also can’t help shake the feeling that this is all the basis for some kind of sci-fi movie plot. I’m onto you, Skynet!
Doresoom
I’ve gotten many emails inviting me to their afflilate program. I’m not touching that with a 10 ft pole.
Colin
Temu is another Chinese govt owned app/e-commerce site that isn’t in the business of turning a profit, but to flood the market with cheap crap running legitimate businesses, out of business. I’m sure it’s also more Spyware/data collection for the Chinese govt.
Al
Downloading the app on a mobile phone can grab more user data. They have a burn rate where they will throw money away with the goal of installing the app.
Apps are stickier than a web site you might visit once. Tracking information is deeper. And you might be giving away things like location data, model of phone, carrier, etc. that have some value for mining and resale.
People bemoaned the Walmart effect and how it cheapened everything from TVs to lawnmowers. Site like these are jist as bad, or worse. Disposable fashion will stuff our landfills with clothes worn once or twice. Or for cheap ‘subscription’services, cheap products like electronic gizmos and fake camping axes will end up trashed too.
Temu, Shein, Vevor. Even YouTube channels with their own subscription boxes filled with trash. I got an illegally imported headlamp with no COO and unlabeled lithium batteries that were already corroding…from a YouTube channel that brags about being so rich they’re flying helicopters and giving away offroad 4x4s. Anything for a buck, I guess.
Influencing is a weird world of soul selling.
William Adams
Still relevant:
https://www.fastcompany.com/54763/man-who-said-no-wal-mart
Temu and the like just upscales this to government-level hypocrisy.
TomD
The crap you get is standard dollar store junk, or worse. I don’t understand its purpose or prospects.
At least alibaba makes some sense.
fred
Many tool listings on Amazon sell junk too. A 5-piece step drill set on Temu for $10.78 is perhaps no better or worse than a $13.29 one on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Welpettie-Titanium-Automatic-Aluminum-Multiple/dp/B08Y8B7M4V
At least with Amazon – you have a shot at returning the set if you use one right away and it fails.
Make “easy money” schemes are nothing new – it’s just that the Internet, cell phones and perhaps even government sponsored scammers have allowed for new avenues to fleece customers.
MKY
Stuart –
“***Were’s*** a summary of what they’re offering.”
Stuart
Thanks! *fixed* It read correctly, and then I kept changing things during proofreading. I’m not sure how that happened.
BS
Temu’s grand-parent company, PDD Holdings, made an app called Pinduoduo that got pulled off Google Play for installing a malware that executed exploits against Android to perform background data collection via privilege-escalation (getting admin access to something, essentially) without user input or permission.
Additionally, Temu’s app is especially heinous in how many permissions it wants you to grant it when you install. It tries to build a complete profile on you, even trying to capture text message contents and social media profile info and photos.
Third, there are accusations of Temu selling bank/CC info but I don’t know if solid evidence besides a few users’ anecdotal experiences (and none of them are tech- or financially-trained experts), so I’ll reserve judgement there.
Further, there are several accounts of customers getting incorrect items, being denied refunds, non-existent customer service, etc. Plus, there are reports of slave labor being used in their supply chain (that may be Alibaba’s or AliExpress’s fault there, it’s a bit muddled, but Temu does use Ali for a lot of their products up the supply chain).
Finally, the way you describe their affiliate structure sounds to me like classic pyramid scheme recruitment tactics. They’re not making money from retail sales: how could they be, with such steep discounts and coupon codes for intro rates? Instead they make money off app downloads, which tells me they’re likely compiling user info into massive databases and acting as a data broker, selling access to this database of user profiles.
Aaron SD
You’re absolutely right. The main goal is downloads vs selling products based on commissions alone. Not sure which is worse, this is TikTok.
Bobcat
Anyone who falls for this is dumber than a box of rocks oh by the way your cars warranty is up love fucking with those people, just ask them which car the 72 maverick or my 78 pacer
Robert
Yeap, stay as far as you can from Temu. I wouldn’t be surprised if the app was made by the CCP’s MSS. And the incentive structure is classical Ponzi scheme.
Stuart
Please refrain from politics.
Ponzi schemes are where new investor money is taken to pay off earlier investors.
Do you mean a pyramid scheme? In a pyramid scheme, or multi level marketing, each seller builds a network of sellers under them.
This is neither. It’s every type of potential affiliate or referral arrangement in a single program. There are first order signup bonuses in a lot of consumer industries, such as for cable service, bank accounts, and product preorders.
Charles
Dear,
I’d ask you to install an app where I can send you money. All I ask is that you install the app and send me all your personal information, banking info and so forth. You can also buy loads or really cheap junk that will most likely break the first time you use them or give you lead poisoning.
Den
It seems that the people commenting here have no real experience with Temu. I just checked the app’s permission requirements, and the only one I have is notifications. Most of the stuff they sell is identical to what is sold in Walmart or Amazon. They also sell some pure junk, but returns are instant credit or cash back with no questions asked (in my experience at least).Don’t like how pushy they are with the referral program? But similar tactics are used pretty much everywhere, to a lesser degree perhaps. Overall, until we have some proof about data mining or other shady practices, I will consider Temu for future shopping
Stuart
That’s the thing, similar tactics are NOT used “pretty much everywhere.”
I have never known any other retailer to offer anywhere close to this level of incentivisation.
TomD
It’s very VERY common in Asia, some have appeared in the US – “banggood” is another that feels almost identical.
The only thing I’ve seen native that gets anywhere close is the retiree milking machines known as Casinos.
Rog
We found the Temu employee, everyone.
Randy
This is such a poor reason to avoid a company. If anything it’s an ad for how cheap they are, and many readers will fall for all the high pressure sales tactics regardless of whether you warn about them.
Look deeper into this and you will see the real reasons to avoid it: The quality/cost is far worse than you think. Usually to the point things simply don’t work.
I suspect they mostly sell quality control rejects. That guarantees you will never be the lucky customer to receive a good one. They should have shipped my order directly to the “recyclers” in southeast asia.
josh Morris
I just assumed this was rebranded wish.com
This the xfinity of chinese garbage
WastedP
I had never heard of Temu until the other day when I watched this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quGoGgbP-aE&ab_channel=CNBC
It would seem that Temu serves as a storefront for Alibaba-style transactions. Temu isn’t running a warehouse or shipping operation. Most of the items sold through Temu are delivered by mail, bypassing customs inspection and tariffs (reducing price).
So how does Temu make money off the items they sell? They don’t, sort of like Costco selling stuff at cost to make money off of memberships. They want you to download the app, not to buy stuff now, but for the “added features in the future.” They want the app to gain a huge user base for shopping, then mutate it later into an app for more profitable things, like banking and advertising.
Jason. W
I have made one order. i wanted to try their knock off lego’s that sell for 1/6th the price of real legos.
they were not actually that bad. I got a 12 inch robot mech that went together fairly easily. the pieces dont hold together as well as real Lego’s but for a display item it was a pretty good buy.
Champs
Welp, this article was enough to bring Temu ads back into my web browsing experience…
Stuart
Sorry. Not here though, right? I blocked them after the first post.
Al
Your top banner is running an ad for Temu app in Google Play store. (4am PST).
Not unexpected. But ironic that 90% percent of the post + comments is not in favor of Temu.
BS
Sometimes, the site doesn’t get to choose what ads are shown. They sign up with an advertising company and run their code to load ads but the advertised ultimately picks what rotates on. That’s how you get some tasteless ads paired with articles, like a bleach company ad next to an article about children dying from drinking bleach.
The modules are usually smart about disallowing things the website operator doesn’t want to show but they’re not foolproof, especially on zero-day decisions. Stuart, I’m sure, has done what he can about Temu ads here but his control might be limited by whatever provider he’s using, even if that’s Google.
That said, Google has been known to choose to highlight and push ads algorithmically based on content you’ve viewed or tracking pixels/cookies in your browser. Sometimes, they don’t care about what site it’s shown on; they’ll elect to show you whatever they want.
There are numerous ways to fight this and remove ads completely but I won’t go into detail here because I don’t want to take revenue en masse from Stuart.
Stuart
Google DOES give me the ability to block certain ads, brands, etc.
I’ll have to check, but I’m fairly certain I blocked Temu.
I tend to block annoying ads when they come up, especially the “click here” ones. Some companies seem to use intermediary URLs that direct to one domain and then another, but it’s rare.
There are settings to block potentially offensive categories, and I have all of those blocks activated. A reader once ranted to me once about obscene ads. I looked into it and asked for a screenshot. Then I asked if their spouse did any clothing shopping on their computer. It seemed their wife shopped for athletic wear, and so they were served ads for female athletic wear.
Readers can use adblockers if they choose. For the most part I try to maintain a layout that keeps ads to a minimum. Google sometimes automatically enables experiments that allow for interstitials and similar, and I deactivate them as soon as I see it.
Rick
I wanted to try it, so I downloaded the app and made one purchase (at 50% off the already cheap prices). But I will never order again because of the high-pressure sales tactics. I was actually surprised at the quality — it was better than I expected. The tools were a little better than the cheap junk on eBay.
My real complaint is the company’s lack of visibility/ honesty about their supply chain. I cannot believe they can sell tools that cheaply without doing something illegal (at least in the US). I’m talking about basic human rights. I don’t think I can say anything more without it becoming political, so I’ll leave it at that. (BTW, I completely support your ban on political discussions.)
Rob G Mann
I don’t have any tools from Temu. I try to support American manufacturers when I can. Let’s just say that I have waay too many “red” hand tools in my wood shop (and I’m not talking Milwaukee lol).
That said, I have ordered basic electrical components from Temu (think resistors, LEDs, and USB connectors) that I use in some of my woodworking projects. I’ve used the website (not the app) and paid with PayPal. Every transaction (so far) has been good. The one time that something (a small plastic box) was busted, I submitted for a refund of the 1.79 purchase price and was immediately refunded.
I agree with Stuart wholeheartedly that their affiliate program is suspect and I certainly don’t like that aspect of it.
Will I ever buy any tool on there? Unlikely. Will I continue to buy very inexpensive parts and components that aren’t mission critical…probably.
S
I dunno, I saw an article awhile ago that temu was shooting to take on Amazon. The plays they’re making align with that.
Even harbor freight started off cheap to garner market share before shifting products and pricing upmarket to what we see now.
In a lot of ways, I think temu is only following the tried and true formula to break into the industry–Firesale everything to gain the market share while investors fund daily operations, then taper off sales, move product quality upmarket, and wean off investor capital to actual product markup profit…
I’ve gotten a few things from them, the same crap I buy at the dollar store, or 5below. The quality and result is exactly what I expected for the price point. Not disappointed but not excited about any of it either.
Of course, I don’t use the app, and I am going to keep watching them for the time being to see what comes of it. For now I don’t really trust them for tool purchases, but am open to trying new things if their quality/pricing changes later on.
Charles
Here’s another take on temu from Deutsche Welle – A respected German news source. https://www.dw.com/en/temu-app-downloads-soar-as-western-shoppers-look-for-cheap-chinese-goods-and-sales/a-66683429
Matt
Comment 1: Shipping direct from factory to consumer circumvents the 25% 301 tariff on Chinese goods (because the package skips through US Customs as it is <$800).
Comment 2: I've seen a lot of name brand motorcycle apparel on Temu and I'm curious if this is properly licensed or counterfeit.
Comment 3: Look up human rights violations in the factories that Temu uses. Temu claims it isn't their job to police their factories, it is the factory's job to self-report.
Charles
1 – yes, this is the one of the issues raised in the article.
2 – what is the pricing of the motorcycle gear? Is it possible that it is “real” given the price? Is the gear originally made in China?
3 – the human rights issues are real, but we expected retailers to police the factories, then there would be very few stores selling anything. These human rights issues aren’t limited to China, but some sort of charges can be levied against nearly every country – but that certainly wasn’t the focus of this discussion.
this is not a political discussion per-se except that it would be incomprehensible for a company to stay afloat without government backing with those incentives and prices. They must be making their money somewhere else – and that somewhere else must be information.
And yes, I’d venture a guess that the motorcycle gear is counterfeit.
Daniel L
Sounds like venture-capital-funded tech nonsense.
Amazon currently dominates: so, take all the cheap crap that Amazon sells and offer it on another site. Pay folks to get people to use the site. They’re likely deficit spending to get their brand and app out into the mainstream.
Kinda like how Amazon itself can participate in anti-competitive tactics: the whole story a while back where they drove a mom-n-pop baby diaper delivery website out of business by reducing the prices of the diapers on their site below cost. The mom-n-pop couldn’t compete with a company that was willing to sell products at a loss, and after they went out of business Amazon returned to their normal pricing.
It’s unsurprising that a company would resort to these sorts of tactics to claw some portion of the market share that Amazon has accumulated away from it, honestly. But it’s hardly any more scammy than the behaviors that Amazon has participated in over its existence.
Lots of whatcha find on Amazon these days is essentially mega-marked up Alibaba/Aliexpress stuff sitting in a US warehouse. Maybe customized with branding, maybe not. Quality will vary, not everything is garbage…Chinese manufacturing has gotten quite good in certain realms.
But…well…nobody’s gonna unseat Amazon by playing fair. Which is worth pointing out as part of the problem…not that I would defend Temu’s tactics here. It’s all pretty unsustainable over the long run…at least if we want to keep things from getting un-good.
Jared
It seems like the “no politics” policy comes under attack occasionally and I just wanted to say: I’m quite happy with the atmosphere of the Toolguyd comments section. If it needs to be moderated to achieve that – fine with me.
Stuart doesn’t “censor” opinions about tools and it’s nice that the comments section actually remains a civil discussion about tools.
Charles
More and more news is coming out about the Temu business practices and it ain’t a pretty sight.
https://theweek.com/china/1026408/temu-consumer-concern-china
Charles
Now the BBB is jumping into the fray
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/bbb-temu-personal-info/