Shein and Temu see U.S. demand plunge as loophole for cheap goods closes

NBC News

2 days ago

Use of low-cost e-commerce giants Temu and Shein has slowed significantly in the key U.S. market amid President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports and the closure of the de minimis loophole, new data shows.
Temu's U.S. daily active users (DAUs) dropped 52% in May versus March, before Trump's tariffs were announced, while those at rival Shein were down 25%, according to data shared with CNBC by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
DAUs is a measure of the number of people who visit or interact with a platform every 24 hours. Monthly active users (MAUs), a measure of user engagement over a 30-day period, was also down at Temu (30%) and Shein (12%) in May versus March.
The declines were also reflected in both platforms' Apple App Store rankings. Temu averaged a rank of 132 in May 2025, down from an average top 3 ranking a year ago, while Shein averaged a rank of 60 last month versus a top 10 ranking the year prior, the data showed.
Neither Temu nor Shein immediately responded to CNBC's request for comment.
The user drop off comes as both Temu and Shein have pulled back on U.S. advertising spend over recent months since the Trump administration's tariff announcements.
Trump in April announced sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports, including the end of the 'de minimis' tariff exemption on May 2, which allowed companies to ship low-cost goods worth less than $800 to the U.S. tariff-free.
In May, Temu's U.S. ad spend fell 95% year-on-year while Shein's was down 70%.
'Temu and Shein's decline in US ad spend was also noticeable in April, as spend decreased by 40% and 65% YoY, respectively,' Seema Shah, vice president of research and insights at Sensor Tower, said in emailed comments to CNBC.
Both Temu and Shein also altered their logistics models in the wake of tariffs, shifting away from a drop shipping model, which allowed them to send items directly from Chinese suppliers to U.S. consumers, and instead, particularly in Temu's case, building up a network of U.S. warehouses.
Rui Ma, founder and analyst at Tech Buzz China, said such moves were also likely to have impacted the companies' ad spend strategy and customer acquisition patterns.
'All these additional costs and regulatory hurdles are clearly hurting Chinese platforms' U.S. growth prospects,' she wrote in emailed comments.
Tech Buzz China research from March showed that a 50% tariff would be the point at which Temu would lose most of its price advantages and find it difficult to operate. The tariff on former de minimis imports currently stands at 54%, having been lowered from 120% amid a 90-day tariff truce between the U.S. and China.
Growth outside the U.S.
Last week, Temu's parent company PDD Holdings reported first-quarter earnings below estimates and pointed to tariffs as a significant pressure on sellers.
Temu's popularity has nevertheless picked up outside the U.S., with non-U.S. users rising to account for 90% of the platform's 405 million global MAUs in the second quarter, according to HSBC.
Writing in a note last week, HSBC analysts said that was 'supported by growth in Europe, Latin America, and South America.' They added that the swiftest of that growth occurred in 'less affluent markets.'
'Many (Chinese platforms) are now actively redirecting their efforts toward other markets such as Europe,' Ma said.