Chinese online marketplace Temu has compounded its tone-deaf appearance at Spring Fair by following up with emails suggesting attendees start selling on the platform renowned for allowing copycats to rip off many greeting card publishers.
The vast majority of those at last Tuesday’s (4 February) presentation in the Masterclass Studio in Hall 3 – the greetings hall – were publishers and artistswhose designs are still being plagiarised by sellers on the platform, forcing them to spend hours finding and reporting the copies which Temu eventually take down, only for them to resurface within days under another seller’s name.
Having sat through e-commerce leader Thomas Wintle’s 15-minute talk on Empowering Independent Retailers: The Future Of E-Commerce And Consumer Experience, where he explained he is part of the new UK Temu team – although it’s based in Dublin – and pushed the idea of British sellers joining the platform, all the questions and audience feedback was about the widespread copyright issues, treatment of workers, and sustainability concerns.
However, less than 24 hours later, all attendees whose Spring Fair badges had been scanned received an Invitation To Join Temu email from senior business development manager Oliver Xie which said: “I believe you have shown an interest in selling on Temu – the fastest-growing marketplace and downloaded app in 2024!”
The Greeting Card Association’s (GCA) ceo Amanda Fergusson was first to take the microphone as soon as the official presentation finished, stridently stating the failings of Temu: “The problem is the plagiarism that’s happening, it’s like whack a mole,” highlighting how countless GCA member publishers are spending considerable amount of their time in the relentless battle to inform the platform of their designs which had been blatantly copied and put up for sale on Temu only for them to pop up again.
Showing the solidarity of trade associations on this damaging issue, Andy Meehan, US GCA president, told Thomas: “You’re a very brave man to come here, and I salute you for that but, when you’re paying your mortgage, realise that you’re paying your mortgage with the fruits of the labour of everybody sitting in this audience.”
A clearly-angry Emma Ball called Temu “time thieves”, expecting small businesses to trawl through the site finding and reporting copies. Progressive Greetings’ Warren Lomax got no answer to his questions about the Chinese factories linked to the site which use forced labour from the Uyghur ethnic minority or how much tax the company pays in the UK, and there was no response to the British Independent Retailers’ Association (Bira) when asking about sustainability with the shipping from China.
Anti-Copying In Design (ACID) ceo Laura Newbold Breen wanted “stronger words of reassurance than just saying ‘we need to look at this and we have got contact available’,” and said the alleged “stringent vetting isn’t working”, andThe Art File’s Karen Mace confirmed this by logging on to the site while sitting in the audience and finding identical ripped-off versions of their 3D Form range.
Among attendees in the audience asking Temu’s Thomas Wintle for answers was Progressive Greetings’ Warren Lomax (second right).
Claiming there are 20million Temu users in the UK alone who like the “unbeatable deals, affordability, and ease of use”, Thomas said global online sales should grow to £6.4trillion ($8tr) by 2027, and talked about the rise of Eastern marketplaces in the West, and the proliferation of players like his employer, saying it’s about “consumer shift to value”, helped by optimising supply chains so the 15-day delivery times to Britain, the US and European zone has been cut to seven days and shorter.
Pointing to the mission statement of “connecting consumers with millions of merchandise partners, with the mission to empower them to live a better life”, he said he wanted to “debunk the myths” about the platform, which was launched in 2022, first in the US before branching out to Europe in 2023, and now in over 90 countries worldwide.
“Many people believe Temu is just low-quality products from China but, actually, we have thousands of five-star reviews on those products, and before they even hit the market, there’s an incredible amount of testing that goes into that,” Thomas claimed. “We do seller vetting. Before you are even on board, we take a look at the company accounts. We make sure you are who you say you are. The directors are who they say they are, that’s just to get on board selling products.
“When it comes to product listings, we have both manual screening and algorithm screening. Of course, there are going to be times where things slip through the net, but we are proactive as well as reactive when it comes to taking down copycat sellers, anyone that is using essentially your imagery and even product descriptions.
“We also have customer feedback loops. If you are there, writing comments, giving bad reviews, immediately, this will reduce the visibility of such products. And if you use our IPR portal, you can contact us, and we can take down genuine copycat products if necessary. Today is the local seller initiative. Our aim is to improve the marketplace in three ways, reduce delivery times, enhance product assortment, and, of course, increase the trust. And we do that by working with all of the brands here today.
“We started this back in February last year. We began in the US. We then kicked off in the EU, and in July, we began here in the UK, starting to talk, to discuss and open new partnerships with brands on UK soil. And here we are in February with our very first expo, where we’re talking openly with sellers and really trying to make sure that you understand the fantastic opportunities from joining us this year.” Saying Temu’s aim is “to democratise the access to marketplace”, he highlighted the zero joining fees, no commission, and no deposit, and that it’s “commercially compelling” with higher margins, free marketing and competitive shipping.
He added: “The only thing you need is to be a UK-registered business, have UK-based stock or a UK warehouse, and ensure that you upload your trademark or, in the case of retailers and multi brand sellers, what we would need to see is brand authorisation from those specific brands that you’re working with.”
In the Q&A session, Thomas acknowledged there is a plagiarism issue and said the UK team is pushing for “greater cooperation, both communication with yourselves and also with our Chinese team, who are essentially managing those products coming through the market.”
He said designers can work with Temu’s IP portal to submit copyright claims and the UK team will “fast track” these to get rid of any copycat sellers, adding: “We hear you. With the new local team in place, what we should do is sit down to really understand the needs, and we will make sure to work through that with our central team to make those changes. Our sole aim as a UK team is to support all of you as UK sellers. Before, this wasn’t in place, so now you have a voice internally as well as externally.When I talk about corporate cooperation, if we can sign you up as registered sellers when your trademark is uploaded when you are there as a local seller, immediately, then you have greater rights on the platform. Your products will show up much higher than any of these cross-border sellers.
“Now, this doesn’t necessarily stop the issue of copyright, IPR infringementbut, at the same time, is going to quell a number of people purchasing from them and more towards your shops directly.” But when Emma Ball pointed out that companies shouldn’t have to sign up as a seller to have their legal copyright and trademarks protected, Thomas changed tack and responded: “Register the trademark, not necessarily to sell on the platform but, as long as we have the knowledge in a simple two clicks, a small form to fill in.”
Yvette Clarkson of Heyyy Cards summed it up: “You’ve just spent some time talking to us about how successful your growth has been so I would encourage Temu to employ staff and use some of those profits for you to be proactive in preventing copyright as opposed to pushing back to us as a small business and many other small businesses who don’t have the time or the profits to employ somebody to work on copyright infringement.
“That would be received much better when you’re trying to break into this market and encourage us to work with you. You need to be spending your profits employing the right teams to deal with it at source, as opposed to a reactive response… read the room and be aware of the political feeling and the distress that it’s caused to people affected.”
Amanda Fergusson sought out the most senior member of the Temu team at the presentation, pushing for immediate action: “Take all greeting cards off the Temu platform and have a reset. This is a major issue for our creative industry.”
To read more comments on the blatant copying on Temu, head to an extensive article in Progressive Greetings’ December edition by clicking here.
Top: Temu’s Thomas Wintle, shown on stage at Spring Fair, was bombarded with questions from the greeting card industry.
