In a world where prices for everything seem to constantly rise, almost everyone is looking for ways to increase their income in a way that’s not solely tied to the time you have to invest.
Dropshipping has been a staple side hustle for over a decade, offering aspiring entrepreneurs the option to build an eCommerce business without stocking tremendous inventory. Websites like Temu seem like promising dropshipping partners.
Use this guide to understand Temu dropshipping, whether it’s possible, other potential dropshipping partners, the process of dropshipping with Temu, and the pros and cons to consider.
What Is Temu Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is the process of running an eCommerce store where you don’t have any physical inventory you have to package and send out. Rather, you partner with a distribution partner that allows you to act as the retailer, but they handle all of the packaging and shipping.
Temu dropshipping uses the wildly popular shopping platform Temu as your dropshipping partner. You offer goods for sale that you’ve located in Temu, and then Temu handles fulfilling the order and delivering it to the customer.
Can You Dropship from Temu?
According to their frequently asked questions, Temu does not support direct drop shipping. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t craft a way to leverage Temu to develop a lucrative dropshipping business.
Rather, there’s a little more work involved to make dropshipping from Temu plausible if you’re determined to make it happen.
Is Temu Good for Dropshipping? How Do You Know If It Is the Best Choice for You?
When evaluating dropshipping partners, it’s not just a matter of where you get the best deals. Rather, you should also consider the reliability of the partner, the customer experience, your profit margin, and the difficulty of using the dropshipping partner.
Your goals and the level of work you’re willing to invest to make your business work will determine which partner is the best fit. Aside from Temu, you may want to explore working with other popular dropshipping partners, including:
- AliExpress
- Etsy
- Banggood
- CJ Dropshipping
Like most income opportunities, there are some pros and cons you’ll want to consider. Be sure to carefully consider each, and the impact it may have on your business as you decide on your dropshipping partner.
Pros of Temu Dropshipping
Temu has many benefits that attract both direct customers and drop shippers alike. These include:
Low Prices: One of the biggest reasons people shop in Temu is because of the exceptionally low prices.
Product Variety: Like other large marketplaces, there’s something for just about everyone in the Temu catalog.
Changing Discounts: In addition to already low prices, Temu offers an array of discounts, including flash sales and lightening deals. This may help increase the profit margin you enjoy from selling products listed on the site.
Customer Service Features: Temu offers 30 days for price adjustments in case you find a better price on your product. They also offer 90 days for returns in case you, or your customer, are not satisfied with the product you receive.
Cons of Temu Dropshipping
Despite all of the benefits of shopping with Temu, there are bound to be a few challenges. Some that you might experience include:
Temu Branded Shipping: Temu is known for its bright orange packaging. Some dropshipping suppliers offer blind or branded shipping options, making it a more seamless experience for your customers. Some drop shippers have found that certain customers will return the product once they see the Temu packaging and then order directly from Temu to get the most heavily discounted price possible.
Inconsistent Shipping Times: Most people ordering from eCommerce sites expect Amazon-level shipping speed, or at least consistency when ordering from the same site. You may find it challenging to offer your customers reliable shipping when dropshipping from Temu.
Product Quality: Despite the 90-day return policy, some people find that products do not have the same quality as their brand-name counterparts. This can lead to excessive returns, which both cut into your profit margin and increase your administrative workload.
Unreliable Customer Service: Temu has some great customer service policies and promotes its 24/7 customer service availability. However, some have found they are not as responsive as most experienced eCommerce customers expect, especially around resolving problems with products.
Guide to Temu Dropshipping
Setting up Temu dropshipping takes a little effort and know-how, making it something that inevitably restricts the number of people attempting it. Whether you choose to engage in full Temu dropshipping or use it as a component of your dropshipping strategy, here are the steps you’ll plan to complete.
1. Product Research
At the very start of your dropshipping endeavor, product research is critical for finding what draws consumer attention. There are millions of products available, and not all of them have the same appeal and therefore have differing revenue potential.
Temu is incredible for offering you insight into what’s selling. Start by choosing the product categories you want to focus on. Once you’ve made that decision, start looking at the products available on the platform.
For every product listed, you not only get the product description, price, and reviews but also the number of times it’s been purchased. This is especially helpful in determining the popularity of a product and how likely you are to find paying customers.
2. Setting Up Your Sales Channels
Once you know what products you want to promote, it’s time to think about where you’re going to sell them.
You still have the traditional option of setting up a website and selling goods from there. If this is an option you want to explore, you may want to consider easy eCommerce sites like Shopify or Wix. Both of these can be easy to set up as a dropshipping business.
However, websites are not the only channels to explore, and may not be the channel with the highest revenue potential.
Other channels include social marketplaces like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and even YouTube. There are other sites and marketplaces you can list products on as well, such as Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and Bonanza.
As you evaluate your channel options, keep in mind that you may find running multiple channels advantageous. However, running too many channels can become overwhelming and cause a poor customer experience. Choose carefully, especially when you’re first starting, and remember that you can expand to additional channels down the road.
3. Consider Automation Integrations
Part of the attraction of Temu dropshipping is that you can run a successful eCommerce business without dedicating your entire life to it. To help achieve this, you want to look for automation tools to help simplify the administrative work.
These tools include options to automatically import products from Temu to the sales channel, to automatically submit sales to your dropshipping partners, to sync tracking numbers, and more. Keep in mind that automation options are limited for Temu dropshipping because Temu does not officially support dropshipping.
Cartifind is one tool that works for automating some of the processes for selling through Shopify and Wix websites.
4. Promoting Your Sales Channels
Unfortunately, products don’t just gain visibility on their own but require some amount of marketing and promotion. The right options will depend on your target market, the product type, and your sales channels.
There are two primary approaches to promotion, either those ways that don’t cost much but require your time or those that may not take as much time but will require paid promotion. The best drop shippers will explore both options and test what works for the products and channels they’re using.
Marketing options that may not require much investment but will take some time include search engine optimization (SEO) and organic social media marketing.
Paid promotion include featured product listings, PPC marketing, and paid social media marketing.
5. Fulfill Your Orders
After orders start rolling in, you’ll need to start fulfilling them and get products into your customers’ hands. When dropshipping from Temu, you’ll have to take the customer information from your sales channels and place the orders manually on Temu.
Be sure to pay particular attention to the customer information so that the orders go to the proper customer and location.
To Conclude
Before you start dropshipping, use this guide to understand Temu dropshipping, whether it’s possible, other potential dropshipping partners, the process of dropshipping with Temu, and the pros and cons to consider.
