Temu has the fastest-growing online customer base among Australian retailers, and in a new survey, the e-commerce giant climbed to the eighth-largest retail spot, surpassing Bunnings.
The Ipsos poll also revealed the online merchandiser now has a massive shopping base of 9.2 million Australians in June.
Temu may now have a huge market share, which is tipped to hit a new high during the holiday, but cybersecurity experts caution shoppers that their personal data could be at risk when using the e-commerce company.
Since bursting onto the scene in 2022, super low prices have attracted customers to buy a wide range of products from kitchen tools to clothes and with a tagline like “Shop Like a Billionaire”, users can buy multiple items at a low price of $5 each and even under.
According to Dr. Shasha Wang, a senior lecturer in the school of advertising, marketing and public relations at Queensland University of Technology, the e-commerce company has launched at a perfect time to capitalise on Australian shoppers on the hunt for deals.
“I don’t know whether it was planning, or good luck [from Temu], but this environment produces a very good opportunity,” Wang said.
Temu entered the Australian market when households are cutting costs, and capitalising on Aussies going to their site in search of items like inexpensive clothing, homewares, and cosmetics.
Wang says that Temu could be in direct competition with businesses like Kmart, but other online-only businesses will most likely be affected by Temu’s mounting popularity.
“It becomes a strong competitor for other e-commerce platforms.”
Though Temu’s products are flying out of stock and into Australian homes, RMIT University academics have issued a warning for Australian consumers.
Temu says in its privacy policy that the retailer may merge details shoppers fill out when purchasing with “information from third-party sources”, and social media.
“We may collect information such as your username, profile picture, and email address if you choose to register or log in on the service using said third-party service,” Temu says in its privacy policy.
Cybersecurity expert Professor Asha Rao from RMIT’s School of Science said that the social media aspect of Temu’s data collection is the most potentially problematic.
“If you log in using a social media account – via Google, Facebook or something else, they have got much more information,” she said. “I don’t think users pay enough attention to what they are doing.”
Professor Rao advises consumers to protect their data from Temu’s online shopping app by doing the following: disable location sharing, avoid using personal social media accounts to log in, clear cookies and history after using the app, and create a separate email address for online shopping.
