Temu catches up with Amazon in cross-border online shopping

Chinese discount platform Temu now accounts for a quarter of cross-border e-commerce, according to a new report, putting it on par with the American retail giant Amazon.

Temu, which is owned by PDD Holdings, has increased its cross-border sales share from less than 1% in 2022, the year it was founded, to 24% in 2025, according to International Post Corporation (IPC).

IPC is an association of 26 national post services in Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. It has based its calculation on a survey of 30,970 participants from 37 countries conducted in September last year.

The numbers show that Temu is now the most used cross-border shopping platform alongside Amazon, whose market share has slightly declined over the past few years.

“Chinese e-commerce exports, especially from Temu, have significantly increased in the past three years, though the global e-commerce supply chain is evolving due to customs changes in 2025 and into 2026,” said Holger Winklbauer, the chief executive at IPC.

“At a time when new customs and handling charges are being added, consumers reiterated the importance of having clarity on the fees prior to their purchases,” he said.

Faced with increasing competition, some major economies, including the US and the EU, have moved to impose fixed customs duties on cheap goods entering their markets, a measure primarily targeting Chinese retailers like AliExpress, Shein, and Temu.

Shein saw “explosive growth” in the years leading up to 2023, but its market share has stabilised at 9% over the past two years, according to IPC. It is followed by AliExpress, which held an 8% market share last year but has declined by 33% since 2018.

They are followed by the US-based marketplace eBay with a 5% share, while Germany’s Zalando, Lithuania’s Vinted, and California-based Wish each accounted for less than 5%.

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