{"id":601658,"date":"2025-07-08T13:42:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T11:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=601658"},"modified":"2025-07-08T13:42:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T11:42:27","slug":"temu-launches-warehouse-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/601658-temu-launches-warehouse-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Temu launches warehouse in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Temu says it has launched a local warehouse in South Africa, allowing it to provide shoppers much faster delivery times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The direct-from-China online marketplace tags items available from its South African warehouse as \u201clocal\u201d, with delivery times of under two days, including next-day delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, it does not indicate which courier will deliver the item. Non-local listings show that Buffalo Logistics imports the products and Fastway delivers them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Temu\u2019s announcement of a local warehouse is the company’s first major indication of domestic expansion since its launch 18 months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The e-commerce platform debuted in South Africa in January 2024, offering discounted goods imported directly from China through local logistics partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Temu saw a surge in popularity in South Africa and several other countries outside China, driven by its aggressive prices and massive online marketing spending in 2023 and early 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a report by MediaRadar, the retailer increased its advertising budget by 1,000% in 2023, a large portion of which was used for paid social media promotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Temu\u2019s most effective tools has been its use of gamification, which pulled in first-time shoppers with a virtual spinning wheel that awarded them significant discounts on their initial purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goldman Sachs previously estimated that Temu\u2019s significant marketing spending resulted in a loss of $7 per order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within months of Temu\u2019s entry into the South African market, it and rival Chinese marketplace Shein faced significant backlash from local businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online retailers and representatives of goods manufacturers in South Africa called attention to tax loopholes being exploited by foreign importers, allowing them to undercut domestic players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry sources explained that the problem was a South African Revenue Service (Sars) concession from 2007, which allowed importers to pay a flat duty rate of 20% without VAT on low-value imports below R500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That concession aimed to simplify customs clearance processes for logistics companies as international e-commerce activity accelerated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, retailers said the concession was being exploited to avoid the 45% duty on imported clothes, creating an unfair playing field in the clothing and textile sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the technology sector, local players said Temu was allowing merchants on its platform to sell goods into South Africa without the proper electrical and radio certifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SARS steps in<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Temu listings in South Africa with local warehouse availability indicated<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Product listing on Temu in South Africa with next-day delivery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sars initially responded to complaints from the local industry by announcing it would levy the entire 45% clothing tax on all applicable imports, including those valued under R500, from 1 July 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tax collector estimated that, given the rise in global e-commerce trade, these loopholes resulted in tax losses close to R3.5 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Sars put this plan on permanent hold. Instead, the taxman said it implemented an interim measure from 1 September 2024 and began levying 15% VAT on top of the 20% duty on low-value orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1 November 2024, Sars said it would reconfigure the 20% flat duty to align with the World Customs Organisation (WCO) import guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, these new rules were not implemented until February<\/a> this year, as additional time was needed to ensure they balanced the interests of various industry stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was according to South African Express Parcel Association chair Garry Marshall, who maintained that nothing the Chinese retailers or their logistics partners did at customs was illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the main issue with the mechanism was its impact on South Africa\u2019s clothing and textile industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marshall added that scrapping the concession to eliminate the 20% flat duty loophole could have had disastrous consequences for import procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was because its primary purpose was not to reduce consumer costs but to speed up deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe vast majority of courier traffic coming in is cleared through customs before it even arrives in the country,\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you were going to submit the documents with all the tariff codes to customs, it could take days to clear a shipment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband contacted Temu for comment about the announcement of its local warehouse, and it did not respond by publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Temu says it has launched a local warehouse in South Africa, allowing it to offer next-day delivery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":601661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,40380],"tags":[99723,87953],"class_list":["post-601658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","category-trending","tag-south-african-revenue-services-sars","tag-temu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601662,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601658\/revisions\/601662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}