Shein and Temu sent similarly worded letters to customers warning of incoming price increases on April 25th and encouraged them to shop now at today's rates.
The efforts of the two Chinese retailers may be working, at least in the short term, as Bloomberg reports that both Shein and Temu saw their sales rebound in March and April as US shoppers stockpiled products like makeup brushes and home appliances before tariff-led price increases went into effect. Shein recorded some of its best US sales growth in the past 12 months as revenue jumped 29% in March YoY and then accelerated further to 38% during the first 11 days of April. Meanwhile Temu saw growth of 46% and 60% over the same periods.
Alibaba's Taobao app and another popular Chinese marketplace app called DHgate have also been experiencing a surge in American shoppers in recent weeks. Both apps have reached Top 5 spots in Apple's US App Store, partly due to an influx of Chinese manufacturers promoting the apps in TikTok videos as a means to avoid tariff price increases (more on that below). In April, Taobao's estimated downloads hit 185,000, marking a 514% increase it saw during the same period last month, while DHgate saw installs surge 5.7x over the weekend.
Through all this tariffs uncertainty, consumers are actively looking for ways to bypass incoming tariffs, and Chinese manufacturers are hopping on the bandwagon. US TikTok users' For You pages are being flooded with videos from Chinese manufacturers urging Americans to bypass tariffs by purchasing goods directly from China, with some manufacturers claiming to sell the same Lululemon leggings that retail for $100 for just $5 because “the materials and the craftsmanship are basically the same because they all come from the same production line.”
Lululemon warns that it does not work with the manufacturers identified in the videos and that claiming to manufacture for big-name brands while actually selling knockoffs is a common scam.