According to the latest figures from Fevad and Médiamétrie, the number of visitors to Temu’s and AliExpress’s websites declined significantly in the second quarter in France, even before the European 3-euro tax targeting small parcels came into effect.
The Federation of Online and Distance Selling (Fevad) and the audience measurement specialist Médiamétrie Netratings announced: “While the sector’s overall audience remains at a very high level, Temu, Shein, and AliExpress all three record a drop in their monthly traffic.”
Of these three Asian platforms, among the top 20 e-commerce sites most visited by the French, it is Temu that records the strongest decline.
The typical Chinese-origin “bazaar” site, in fourth place, posts a 12.7% drop in visitors between the first and second quarters, followed by AliExpress (11th place), which falls from 15.9 million monthly unique visitors in the first quarter to 15.1 million in the second quarter.
Shein’s traffic, in ninth place, remains stable over the period considered but “also declines year on year, from 4.4 to 3.7 million visitors.”
These three sites, accused of environmental pollution given the volumes they put onto the market and unfair competition toward European companies, have since July 1 been liable for a European tax of 3 euros on each category of products shipped in their small parcels originating from China.
Since its implementation, imports of these parcels have fallen by around 30% to 40% in the European Union, the Ministry of Economy announced at the end of August, citing figures from French customs.
“The results of the third quarter will particularly allow us to observe any potential effects on their traffic from the new customs duty that came into effect on July 1,” Fevad said in a statement. But “this decline does not, however, call into question the weight of these platforms, which maintain very high audience levels and an important place in the habits of French consumers,” the federation noted.
Furthermore, “with 41.2 million unique visitors per month, Amazon continues to lead the ranking by a wide margin, ahead of Leboncoin, which gathers 32.1 million monthly visitors.” They are followed by the travel specialist Booking.com, Temu, and the Lithuanian site for second-hand clothing Vinted.
