TEMU and Shein sail on tariff challenges with a strategic change in American warehouse

Temu and Shein have just found themselves in a strange place in the new 90 -day stay in the trade war with China. President Trump has served 30% prices (against 145%) as part of a plan to open negotiations for a new trade agreement.

However, high prices remain on small packets sent directly from China – the genus that Temu and Shein generally send.

Until very recently, TEMU and Shein have benefited from the exception of Minmis, an escape which allowed packages of less than $ 800 in value to ship without service. Trump closed this escape from May 2. He also implemented rates of up to 120% or flat -rate costs of $ 100 per package (going at $ 200 in June). These remain in force, despite the 90-day agreement, Axios reported on Monday.

But TEMU had a bypass strategy that allowed customers to have additional “import costs” massive on orders. TEMU had already built warehouses in the United States, which meant that certain items could be shipped locally (and faster).

A few weeks ago, TEMU changed its site and its application to display almost exclusively items that have dispatched American warehouses – products that would avoid these additional costs. At the time, TEMU told Business Insider that he also planned to work on the recruitment of more American sellers.

Of course, it was a temporary solution: in the end, these American warehouses should restore, and the new bulk shipments would be subject to the 145% tariffs of Trump. When I wrote about this last week, I said that TEMU had some options: focusing on Europe or other markets, or shipping to the United States for other countries.

But there was also another viable option: wait for it and hope that a commercial agreement will occur soon.

So here is where TEMU and Shein are now: the prices to send China customers directly to customers are always expensive. It’s bad for them.

The good news is that if, instead of direct shipping, suppliers are sending large quantities to the American warehouses of companies, the situation is better.

This is because for the moment, Temu and Shein – who also have warehouses – have more time to reconstruct these local warehouses with the lower pricing charges. Temu, Shein and the White House did not respond to requests for comments.

For TEMU sellers, it’s not back to business as usual, but it’s really good news. Here is what a seller said Bloomberg:

For Sun Yang, who has a company selling tools of painting opposite and bodies such as brushes and color palettes on the online market of Temu, the good news could not come early enough when he watched his inventory decrease in warehouses in the United States, which explains all his sales.

“Our whole office shouted” Hourra! ” When we have read the news, “said Sun since his business headquarters in Shenzhen near Hong Kong.

Sun has experienced half-tour sales over the past two months while American consumers upstream of products before prices are skyrocketing.

“Returning to 30% means that we have no pressure from price increases in the foreseeable future,” said Sun, “I hope consumers can gain more confidence and come back to shop.”

So what does that mean? Well, I can certainly say that, for the moment, this is excellent news for these little girls who want 30 dolls instead of only two. Temu and Shein had another life.