Use of low-cost e-commerce giants Temu and Shein has slowed significantly in the key U.S. market amid President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs on Chinese imports and the closure of the de minimis loophole, new data shows.<\/p>\n
Temu\u2019s U.S. daily active users (DAUs) dropped 52% in May versus March, before Trump\u2019s tariffs were announced, while those at rival Shein were down 25%, according to data shared with CNBC by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The declines were also reflected in both platforms\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
Neither Temu nor Shein immediately responded to CNBC\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s tariff announcements.<\/p>\n
Trump in April announced sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports, including the end of the \u201cde minimis\u201d tariff exemption on May 2, which allowed companies to ship low-cost goods worth less than $800 to the U.S. tariff-free.<\/p>\n
In May, Temu\u2019s U.S. ad spend fell 95% year-on-year while Shein\u2019s was down 70%.<\/p>\n
\u201cTemu and Shein\u2019s decline in US ad spend was also noticeable in April, as spend decreased by 40% and 65% YoY, respectively,\u201d Seema Shah, vice president of research and insights at Sensor Tower, said in emailed comments to CNBC.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s case, building up a network of U.S. warehouses.<\/p>\n
Rui Ma, founder and analyst at Tech Buzz China, said such moves were also likely to have impacted the companies\u2019 ad spend strategy and customer acquisition patterns.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these additional costs and regulatory hurdles are clearly hurting Chinese platforms\u2019 U.S. growth prospects,\u201d she wrote in emailed comments. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Last week, Temu\u2019s parent company PDD Holdings reported first-quarter earnings below estimates and pointed to tariffs as a significant pressure on sellers.<\/p>\n
Temu\u2019s popularity has nevertheless picked up outside the U.S., with non-U.S. users rising to account for 90% of the platform\u2019s 405 million global MAUs in the second quarter, according to HSBC.<\/p>\n
Writing in a note last week, HSBC analysts said that was \u201csupported by growth in Europe, Latin America, and South America.\u201d They added that the swiftest of that growth occurred in \u201cless affluent markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMany (Chinese platforms) are now actively redirecting their efforts toward other markets such as Europe,\u201d Ma said.<\/p>\n\n
Use of low-cost e-commerce giants Temu and Shein has slowed significantly in the key U.S. market amid President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs on Chinese imports and the closure of the de minimis loophole, new data shows. Temu\u2019s U.S. daily active users (DAUs) dropped 52% in May versus March, before Trump\u2019s tariffs were announced, while those at <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":35609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}