Beware these Temu tech fakes

South African Temu shoppers should tread carefully when they see products on the marketplace that appear to be from their favourite major brands. At this stage, there does not appear to be a definitive method for confirming their authenticity.

Many experienced Temu shoppers will know that the online store’s primary appeal is its vast assortment of cheap knock-offs of popular products, including those in the tech category.

However, a quick search of Temu’s catalogue will show many listings for devices supposedly from major brands — including Asus, HP, Lenovo, and Xiaomi.

For many of Temu’s customers, paying just a fraction of the price of an authentic product for a budget-friendly alternative similar enough in look and functionality makes for a great deal.

However, when it comes to tech in particular, the compromise is often not worth even Temu’s low prices.

Often, tech products need expensive components to support their most useful features — like expensive speakers with high-fidelity audio or noise cancellation in headphones.

Knock-off products will also not be compatible with the official brand’s ecosystem.

If you buy a smart home Xiaomi product, it is reasonable to expect it should work with the company’s apps and smart home ecosystem. However, a knock-off would not.

MyBroadband found lots of conflicting information online about whether the products on Temu were authentic or counterfeit.

According to multiple third-party websites, some of Temu’s sellers do offer certain authentic products from major brands that have partnered with the online store.

Cybersecurity providers Avast and NordVPN were among several who explained that listings showing a blue-tick badge verified that the listing was for authentic products from the brand shown.

MyBroadband found multiple listings for Asus and HP products with this badge.

However, we could not find any reference to this badge’s meaning on Temu’s website or app, nor the criteria that the company used for a listing to qualify for the badge.

Other third-party websites — like Tom’s Guide — said the blue checkmark “usually” ensured a better quality product but did not go as far as to say it guaranteed the product’s authenticity.

It is also inadvisable to trust a listing merely because of its high number of positive ratings, as it is not uncommon for e-commerce websites to be bombarded with fake reviews.

Muddying the waters further is that a representative of HP recently told ZDNet that the company could not guarantee items with blue badges were from one of its authorised resellers or were authentic because the company did not operate a direct store on Temu in the US.

According to Marketplace Pulse, Temu has big ambitions to expand beyond its status as knock-off haven, as it has reached a growth ceiling with sales of cheap products.

To better compete with the likes of Amazon and its assortment of sought-after products, it started onboarding European and US brands in mid-2024, some of which may be well-known to South African consumers.

Temu also removed a requirement for US sellers to operate a warehouse in China in May 2024.

As of August 2024, Marketplace Pulse found that five of the top 25 sellers on Amazon.com had joined Temu’s marketplace.

However, Marketplace Pulse said consumers should not expect companies like Nike or Samsung to come to Temu, as the retailer’s market positioning was incompatible with these brands.

There is also no guarantee that Temu’s attempts to lure in US and European sellers will work.

Temu’s major Chinese competitor, Shein, has been recruiting US sellers for much longer but has struggled to grow their presence on its store.

Wish also had little success when it pitched its offering to major brands over five years ago.