60% of Britons have shopped at Temu, Shein or other Chinese stores in the last year

E-commerce marketing company Omnisend surveyed 1,000 UK citizens and found that Chinese markets are becoming increasingly popular in the UK.

The most popular names in this category are Temu (known to 71% of Britons) and Shein (63%).

Around 60% of Britons have shopped at Chinese markets in the last year, and 62% have shopped at more than one market.

43% of British online shoppers have purchased something from Temu, 42% from Shein, 25% from TikTok Shop and 22% from AliExpress.

The most popular products are adult clothing from Shein (62%), homeware from Temu (34%), electronics from AliExpress (24%) and accessories from TikTok (27%).

“It’s only been a year since Temu launched in the UK and it’s now the fifth most popular e-commerce platform in the country, according to our research, approaching the level of awareness that other, more established platforms like Amazon have been building for decades.

The Temu phenomenon has also attracted the attention of other Chinese marketplaces, creating serious competition for local brands due to its low prices,” says Greg Zakowicz, senior e-commerce expert at Omnisend.

“In fact, around 17% of Britons say they see Temu as Amazon’s main competitor. While 96% of respondents say they don’t trust Temu, that doesn’t seem to stop them from shopping on the Chinese-owned platform.”

Ago vs. Amazon: What Do Consumers Like and Dislike?

When asked to rate their experience on Amazon, Britons gave it an average score of 8 out of 10. They said they appreciated Amazon’s fast delivery (60%), low prices (56%) and ease of online shopping (53%).

Interestingly, Britons who dislike Amazon say it is too expensive (18%), lacks local goods (16%) and has too many ads (17%).

When asked about Temu, Britons gave it a lower rating – 6.7 out of 10. Things that irritate Temu customers include poor quality (30%), long delivery times (30%) and too many ads (14%).

28% of respondents said they liked Temu because of its wide range of products, 49% mentioned its low prices and 29% said the shopping process was very easy.

“Consumer experience varies from person to person. What may seem like a long delivery time to one person may seem reasonable to another.

“Our research found that around 16% of respondents are prepared to wait more than a week for a parcel, and 4% would be prepared to wait more than two weeks,” said Greg Zakowicz. “However, for some people (21% of respondents from the UK), even three days is too long.”

The study found that many consumers choose Amazon when they want to buy electronics, books and household goods. It is a much less popular option for electronics, but is popular for buying clothes and household goods.

Women are rated higher than men in Chinese markets

Of all British women surveyed, 48% said they had shopped at Temu, 58% at Shein, 31% at TikTok Shop and 21% at AliExpress.

Men shop at Temu slightly less often than women (38%), but only 27% of them shopped at Shein and 19% at TikTok Shop.

AliExpress, on the other hand, is more popular among men – 24% of them have shopped on AliExpress.

Women, however, evaluate Chinese trade fairs more positively than men.

	Women	Men
You	6.8	6.6
She in	7.3	6.4
AliExpress	6.3	6.1
TikTok Store	7.1	6.5

What can British businesses do to compete with Chinese markets?

“Our research shows that consumers consider Amazon prices to be too high compared to prices in Chinese markets.

“However, Amazon is ready to compete because of its reputation and fast shipping. Competing in Chinese markets can be much more complicated for smaller brands with their e-commerce stores,” says Greg Zakowicz, senior e-commerce expert at Omnisend.

Since small and medium-sized businesses don’t have the large teams or budgets to compete with Chinese e-commerce platforms, Zakowicz recommends that smaller businesses use marketing tools designed specifically for e-commerce.

Omni-channel marketing platforms can help businesses manage all of their marketing efforts (emails, SMS, push notifications, reviews, and more) in one place. This helps smaller businesses save time and money.

METHOD The study was commissioned by Omnisend and conducted by Cint in April 2024.

A total of 4,000 respondents from 4 countries took part in the survey.

To obtain a representative sample of users at a national level, quotas were set for age, gender and place of residence.