PDD Expands to Chile and Philippines Amid Warehousing Challenges

On August 28th, recently PDD‘s cross-border e-commerce platform Temu officially launched its Chile and Philippines sites, accelerating its global expansion. The Philippines is the first station in Southeast Asia for Temu, while Chile signifies that Temu has entered the furthest South American battlefield from China.

Since its launch in September last year, Temu has now entered 37 countries and regions, covering Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania. Specifically includes Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy Japan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Philippines Poland Portugal Slovakia Slovenia South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States.

This also means that, besides Chile and the Philippines, Temu expanded its coverage to various European countries in August.

Consistent with previous reports, Temu follows a market expansion strategy in the Asia-Pacific region that focuses on “Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia.” The Philippines represents the general situation in Southeast Asia – it has a rapidly growing young user base, a high mobile internet penetration rate, and promising market prospects.

SEE ALSO: PDD Holdings’ Temu Starts Internal Testing in Canada

But Southeast Asia is also one of the most competitive markets. Currently, Southeast Asian giants Shopee and Lazada dominate as the top two platforms. TikTok is also expanding into the Southeast Asian market, and Temu’s entry will further ignite this hotbed of cross-border e-commerce.

In line with practices in other countries, Temu also collaborates with third-party logistics service providers at the new site to offer “last-mile” logistics services to local consumers. In terms of promotional offers at the new site, Temu continues its low-price strategy by introducing large discount coupons and free shipping services. Currently, most products on the Philippines site are priced between 50 pesos and 1500 pesos, giving it a certain price advantage among Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms.

According to Interface News, Temu’s cooperative logistics partner in the Philippines is J&T Express. The logistics delivery time ranges from 5 to 10 days. If the package arrives after 10 days, consumers can receive 250 pesos worth of points within 48 hours. In Chile, Temu collaborates with three logistics companies: Chilexpress, 99Minutos, and Correos. Considering the transportation situation in South America, Temu’s logistics delivery time is also extended to approximately 6-18 days.

Although Temu’s front-end website continues to expand rapidly and its overseas presence is growing, the back-end warehousing and logistics processes are still struggling to keep up. Additionally, cultural clashes in different countries and pressures from regulatory agencies in various regions are all challenges that Temu will have to face next.