Since the start of the year Amazon has lost over 1 million daily mobile app users in the UK. In January 2023 around 9.3 million daily shoppers used its app, a figure that his since declined to 8.3 million.
eBay’s UK daily mobile app users have declined by nearly 2 million since January 2023 (from nearly 6 million at the turn of of this year to its current rate of 4.2 million).
This is according to GWS research based on an opt-in, app-engagement panel of 5,200 participants.
Meanwhile, upstarts Temu and Shein are winning. Temu, which launched in April 2023, saw its UK daily mobile user numbers grow sharply in one month’s time to around 3.5 million. However, since May 2023, its growth has plateaued with similar numbers of users on the app today.
In 2023, Shein has been doubling its UK daily users from 1 to 2 million over the past six months.
Vinted continues to hold steady in terms of user numbers. The company currently boasts around 2 million daily users with the amount of time users are spending on the app only exceeded by Temu.
Temu currently dominates in terms the amount of time each consumer is spending on its app, at an average 18 minutes a day, with Vinted coming in second with 14 minutes. The other major retail apps all fell behind: Shein, eBay and Amazon all averaged just 8 minutes per user each day on their apps.
Yet despite falling user numbers in the UK market, Amazon does not suffer from demographic dominance like its new international rivals, where the company’s mobile app user base is more evenly split between 44% male and 56% female users. Whereas, for Temu, women dominate mobile app usage at 66%, compared to just 34% of male users. This rises to 90% of female users on Shein which has just 10% of men on its mobile app.
The question is does any of this matter, Shein and Temu are generally hawking low cost goods from the far east with the expected slow delivery times that this entails. Temu in particular has practically been buying traffic with free delivery and introductory prices that really are too good to be true.
For the marketplaces this does matter as if consumers are buying their cheap plastic tat elsewhere, they’re not being exposed to quality goods from brands and retailers on their mobile app. If you shop on eBay you probably buy everything on eBay and the same goes for Amazon. Once a consumer starts shopping somewhere else the loyalty is divided and they are perhaps more likely to shop around for every purchase leaving their previous favourite marketplace app unopened.
For brands and retailers this really matters, not only does it weaken the marketplaces where they are happy to place their products, but even if they wanted to they can’t sell on Shein and Temu. These apps are simply not set up for Western brands with higher priced quality goods, and even if they were, which brand would want to place their goods next to products with a supposed 90% discounted price?
And it’s not just in the UK, the same story is being repeated in the US. Since April 2023 Amazon’s user numbers have crashed, falling from an average of 54 million to 46 million users daily – a decline of nearly 8 million daily users in the past nine months.
Temu, has continued its near meteoric rise in the US, adding nearly 10 million new daily users since the turn of the year. Its growth has been so significant that it now ties for the second most used shopping app with Walmart at around 17 million daily users.
Shein has also seen impressive growth in 2023, increasing its US daily users from 3.1 million to 4.9 million daily users over the past year.
For years Amazon has gone all but unchallenged when it comes to offering the complete ecommerce package to consumers, and much of its success has been via its mobile app. However, mobile analytics data from GWS shows how brand loyalty on retail shopping apps moves quickly during challenging economic times, and retailers need to stay on top of the curve or risk getting left behind. While apps like Temu and Shein are seeing significant rises at the moment, expanding their customer bases beyond their faithful female audiences will be crucial for lasting growth and success if they want to pose a genuine threat to Amazon.
– Dr Paul Carter, CEO, GWS
4 Responses
I was saying this here last month. That Temu is dominating things right now. I just need to look over to the wife to see where the “latest” shopping is.
Amazon and eBay sell the same TAT at higher markups usually from the same sellers.
The UK is used to cheap cheap cheap unfortunately things are not cheap anymore. Our economy is in the toilet and China is running at 0 inflation and they will just cut out eBay and Amazon.
eBay has been terrible for years now run for shareholders. Amazon are brilliant at what they do but they are very expensive certainly to sell on and just look at all the fake sales on Prime day. It is all short term profits for the shareholders again. Like most things in the West short term greed over longer term sustainable business.
Vinted tends to avoid the big box shifters that tend to in the end kill a marketplace it is kinda like eBay 15 years again with a lot of unique and one off.
So sales channels that don’t support UK sellers and are likely backed by the CCP with dubious labour in thier supply chains are winning ?
Whilst amazon , ebay and shopify hand in hand on boarded similar sellers for the last 10 years, amazon even supplying a container shipping solution whilst driving out domestic sellers are loosing customers?
Well hold my hat, this is a big surprise !
TEMU – I personally love them. I’m the proud owner of many pieces of useful plastic!! I spend an hour a day on there. I don’t buy much on amazon or ebay anymore unless I need it.
The e-commerce landscape is undoubtedly shifting, with the rise of companies like Temu and Shein offering stiff competition to established giants such as Amazon and eBay. While these newcomers are drawing customers with low-cost goods and introductory offers, it’s important to note the long-term viability and sustainability of these strategies. Moreover, the demographic dominance of these new platforms could limit their overall market reach compared to more balanced platforms like Amazon. While it’s clear they are disrupting the market, the real question lies in whether they can diversify their appeal and ensure quality control. Furthermore, this ongoing market shift serves as a stark reminder of our own complicity. Our governments permit these companies to post items inexpensively, often sidestepping VAT payments, which inevitably puts smaller businesses at a competitive disadvantage. The solution might be the introduction of levies on packages entering the UK and USA, ensuring overseas businesses meet the same standards as domestic sellers. Only by levelling the playing field can we truly ensure the survival and success of our local enterprises.