Amazon plans discount store in US to fight China's Temu and Shein: report

Ecommerce major Amazon is planning to launch a dedicated section for low-priced fashion and lifestyle products on its website in the US, in a bid to fight off competition from Chinese ecommerce companies Temu and Shein.

In a closed-door meeting this week, Amazon told Chinese sellers that this storefront will allow them to ship directly to US consumers, The Information reported. The company said it would start registering merchants this summer and begin accepting inventory later in the year.

This section will mainly feature unbranded items priced under $20. A mockup of the section showed items like massaging tools, phone cases and weights on sale.


Amazon aims to deliver cheap products directly from China within nine to 11 days, the company said in its presentation to Chinese sellers. Sellers in China have used Amazon's fulfillment centres in the past to send goods to warehouses in the US before they are sent to the customers.

This is being viewed as an aggressive step to one-up Temu and Shein, who have seen significant growth in the US due to their modest prices on clothing, electronics, home goods and other such products.

The initiative has been pitched to sellers in China as a cost-saving measure. The etailer also said this will allow merchants to trial new items in the US, by producing them in smaller batches. This is what Shein currently does, where sellers produce a limited quantity of products, and increase goods if demand increases.

This comes months after the ecommerce major piloted a similar venture, Amazon Bazaar, in the Indian market to fend off SoftBank-backed Meesho, which has been gathering attention in India's ecommerce space for low-cost items. The new vertical features economical and unbranded fashion and lifestyle items.

Walmart-owned Flipkart’s Shopsy is another major player in the space, while Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is working on a low-price platform, Ajio Street.