Bargain hunters are driving this year’s holiday shopping season, but not every low-priced option offers the best value for your dollar. Among major U.S. retailers, consumers are also looking to overseas sellers for affordable gifts. More than 1 in 5-holiday purchases will be made on shopping platforms based in China or with ties to the country.
These include Temu, Shein, and AliExpress, which offer super-low prices that U.S. rivals struggle to match. For customers chasing deals, the cost savings can entail tradeoffs in quality. For instance, some children’s goods sold on Temu and Shein have recently faced scrutiny.
The companies have said they support efforts to improve consumer protections and are focused on complying with regulations. Both firms originated in China and have extensive operations in Southeast Asia. They have grown significantly among American customers over the past year amid major marketing campaigns. While Shein mainly sells apparel and accessories, Temu offers a wide range of products and has become one of the largest Chinese-linked sellers in the U.S. However, the results were uneven when several Temu items were tested alongside their name-brand counterparts.
Several products were reviewed: a health tracker, a smartwatch, a pair of running shoes, a juicer, a hairstyling tool, and an espresso machine — altogether costing $180 on Temu, a small fraction of the more than $1,000 bill for their name-brand equivalents. The smartwatch, listed on Temu for just $14 compared to the roughly $400 Apple Watch Series 10, was glitchy, packed with digital ads, and imprecise. When tested at Universal Studios, the Apple Watch logged 18,000 steps, while the Temu device counted only 13,000 — a nearly 30% shortfall.
Desertcat Direct, the manufacturer, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Other Temu products fared better, at least temporarily.
Trade-offs in holiday bargain shopping
The $34 juicer, comparable to a $60 Hamilton Beach version, made a lot of noise but produced a perfectly delicious glass of beet juice. The $29 Temu hairstyling tool functioned similarly to the coveted $570 Dyson Airwrap but got much hotter; a stylist who used it expressed concern about potential hair damage and noted that curls created with the Temu tool loosened faster. Still, given it costs just 5% of Dyson’s price, it might appeal to those seeking budget-friendly wavy hairstyles.
A comparable to the $300 Oura ring, which tracks biometrics to deliver personalized health insights, had a $16 equivalent on Temu that performed reasonably well initially. Its metrics weren’t as comprehensive, but the basic sleep and exercise data it gathered matched up with the Oura rings until about two weeks after the sleep tracker stopped functioning. A producer who tested the $63 Temu espresso maker found that it got alarmingly hot, prompting her to unplug the device every time she left home.
Meanwhile, a correspondent tested bright green running shoes listed as “Men’s Breathable Running Footwear” on Temu, resembling a $275 pair of Sauconys. The firm soles caused knee pain after a 5K run. Following these concerns, Temu suspended the sneakers and would conduct a product review. Overall, it was determined that three of the six Temu products performed as expected.
Temu defended its smartwatch’s step counter and sleep tracker as within the margin of error and explained that its espresso machine’s high heat was due to a preheating function for mug warming, a feature not mentioned in the product’s original listing. Temu also allows customers to return purchases for refunds within 90 days if they encounter any quality issues. Shopping on Temu is a lot like a scratch-off lottery ticket,” said Mark Spoonauer, the editor-in-chief of the product review site Tom’s Guide.
“There’s a lot of excitement when you first buy it; it’s very cheap, and sometimes you’re a winner, and sometimes you’re not.” He recommends buying home decor and fashion on low-cost online marketplaces over tech and other gadgets. “If it isn’t a name brand, be wary,” he said, advising to avoid buying “anything that has to do with your health or fitness.”
Spoonauer also noted that certain electronics could be problematic, especially those that need to stay plugged in. “You never know what could happen,” he said.
