Temu + SHEIN: Behind the bargain

You’re not going to like what I have to report about Temu and SHEIN 💻 🛒 To put it simply, there are questions, comments, and concerns about how both operate.

TOLEDO, Ohio — Have you heard of Temu or SHEIN? Or both? If you’re one for being frugal when it comes to those essential purchases, they’ve likely been in your rotation of online shopping sites. Temu is more broad based shopping, while you’ll notice with SHEIN, the emphasis on fashion. Both have become extremely popular, but as with a lot of things that have surged to popularity, issues have been noted.

In April of this year, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission released a brief on how the sites exploit trade loopholes, have questionable production processes and sourcing relationships, raise concerns over product safety and labor, and violate intellectual property rights. It’s also alleged that the sites present risks to Americans’ data.

Citing a 2018 data breach in which 39 million of SHEIN’s users personal information was obtained, the USCC emphasizes that users were not informed it had occurred, resulting in a $1.9 million fine against its parent company, Zoetop.

As for Temu, another problem, which SHEIN, too, must answer to: the source of labor and how workers are treated. A report published in the Guardian featured insight from a former employee, who accused Temu’s parent company of making some work as many as 380 hours per month. It’s something the company has denied, but questions linger about other incidents in their manufacturing plants.

But what keeps both of these operations afloat is simple: the products are stupidly affordable, which appeals to bargaining Americans, especially younger generations. So much so, SHEIN has surpassed prominent U.S. retailers Zara and H&M. However, there have been cases of products being purchased on both SHEIN and Temu that were low quality and didn’t last, but evidently, it’s a risk many consumers are willing to take.