Temu beats Amazon in online shopping race

A MyBroadband staff member recently conducted an online shopping test pitting Amazon’s US marketplace and Chinese e-commerce giant Temu against each other and found both performed exceptionally well for delivery to South Africa.

Although Amazon recently launched a South African marketplace at Amazon.co.za, its Amazon.com platform offers a much wider range of products, sometimes at much better prices than local retailers.

Its catalogue includes an extensive selection of smartphones unavailable in South Africa — including Google’s Pixel devices.

A MyBroadband employee recently spotted a Pixel 7 Pro 512GB on the website selling for $613 (R10,829), with shipping and taxes included.

However, considering the Pixel 7 Pro would be owned by a rare few in South Africa, he knew that getting a phone case from a local outlet might be difficult or expensive.

Local specialist importers charged over R20,000 for the phone, so he decided to take a chance on the Amazon merchant.

While there were several cases for the smartphone selling at around $15 (R262) on Amazon, the employee was keenly aware of Temu’s great pricing on small electronics and low-value knick-knacks.

He quickly found a clear case selling for just R51 and realised there was an opportunity for an international e-commerce delivery showdown.

The staff member ordered the Google Pixel 7 Pro first on Amazon.com just before 19:00 on Tuesday, 1 October 2024, with the regular shipping option showing an estimated delivery date of 17 October 2024.

The Temu order came about 20 minutes later because our shopper first had to pick some extra items to push his minimum order value to R200.

He opted for a second blue phone case priced at R78 as a potential backup and a small battery-operated light with motion detection for R83 to break through that threshold.

That worked out to a total price of R212 before taxes. Temu’s initial delivery timeline was 8 to 17 October 2024.

After placing the orders, the shopper meticulously tracked the movements of the packages via Amazon and Temu’s respective order tracking pages.

The Pixel 7 Pro order was the first to ship from the seller’s address and arrived at an Amazon warehouse in Edison about eight hours after the order was placed.

The Temu order’s packing started about 14 hours after the order was placed and shipped another six hours later.

Temu’s delivery tracker did not provide details on the precise location of the packing facility.

The Amazon order was delivered to a New York-based Aramex facility on Wednesday, 3 October.

Aramex is one of several logistics and delivery partners that Amazon uses for shipping outside the US.

Temu’s order tracker remained un-updated until Friday, 5 October, when the company notified the shopper that his order had arrived at an airport. Once again, the airport was unspecified.

At this point, he was asked to pay VAT and customs duties on his order via an online link, something Amazon included with the order price from the get-go.

The total amount owed was about R72, working out to an effective tax rate of 34% on the order price of R212.

The Amazon order was the first to get on a flight out of its origin country, with Aramex confirming it had departed the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York by 14:45 on Saturday, 5 October.

The Temu order took to the skies early in the morning on the next day.

Temu faster on the South African leg

Both orders cleared South African customs at OR Tambo Airport without issues on Monday, 7 October. Temu was the first to leave at around 07:00 in the morning, and Amazon followed about two hours later.

However, the Amazon order took far longer from that point to reach its delivery destination.

Amazon and Aramex’s tracking showed the package was only received at an Aramex facility in the afternoon on Tuesday, 8 October.

At that stage, the Temu order was already out for delivery and arrived at the shopper’s address about an hour after the Aramex facility received the Amazon package.

Overall, it took less than five business days for the Temu order to make its way to the customer.

The Pixel 7 Pro was delivered two days later on Thursday, 10 October.

Amazon and Aramex’s tracking showed the order was moved between various carrier facilities despite the airport being less than half an hour away from the delivery address.

While Amazon’s order took longer than Temu’s, it still arrived about a week before its estimated delivery date.

The Temu package’s delivery came on the first day of its estimated timeframe of 8 to 17 October 2024.

Below is a table providing details on the Amazon.com and Temu orders and the timelines of their deliveries.

Amazon’s packaging preferred

When it came to packaging, Amazon had a bit of an advantage.

It shipped the Pixel 7 Pro in a cardboard box, similar to the ones that Takealot uses.

There was only one piece of crumpled recycled brown paper used as padding inside the box and when shaking the box lightly, the phone’s box could be heard moving around inside.

However, the Pixel 7 Pro’s box showed no real material damage, so it would appear this was sufficient.

The Temu order came in a typical courier plastic bag without any padding.

Although this was unlikely to have caused a problem for the cases, the shopper was concerned that the small light may have been damaged.

While their light did work, other Temu shoppers might not be so lucky.