Tariff Pressure Hits Temu and Shein in U.S. as European Growth Accelerates

Donald Trump’s protectionist shift is weighing heavily on Asian e-commerce giants Temu and Shein, which are seeing a sharp decline in U.S. user engagement. Meanwhile, both platforms are gaining ground in key European markets such as Germany, Spain and France.

Temu and Shein users plummet in the U.S. over tariffs, rise in Europe

Modaes

30 jun 2025 - 17:37

Shifting focus on Temu and Shein. As U.S. President Donald Trump begins to see the fruits of his tariff impositions against China, the retail platforms, with their numbers plummeting by leaps and bounds, are seeking refuge in Europe. In the United States, Temu’s monthly users have halved between March and June to 41.4 million, while Shein’s are holding their own with a less pronounced drop of 12%.

In Europe, on the other hand, Temu increased its users by 76% in France; 71% in Spain, and 64% in Germany, compared to the same month last year. Shein’s increase, like its falls, is somewhat more moderate. The platform has seen its active users grow by between 13% and 20% in the UK, Germany and France, according to Sensor Tower data collected by the Financial Times.

In France, the situation could also change in the coming months, as the French Senate has just passed the controversial anti-Shein law, which seeks to regulate not only theirs, but the entire business of large foreign operators of ultra-fast fashion to protect domestic companies. However, the major companies targeted by the legislation are mainly Temu and Shein.

Temu increases its users by 76% in France, 71% in Spain and 64% in Germany.

The drop recorded in the U.S. market may also be related to a decline in the companies’ advertising spend, with Temu’s dropping 87% in the past three months, and Shein’s dropping 69%. Last year they ranked as the tenth and eleventh largest digital advertisers in the U.S., while now they have dropped out of the Top 60.

Temu, specifically, has been suffering from the U.S. government’s onslaught for months. China’s PDD Holdings Group, the platform’s parent company, posted an attributable net profit of 14,742 billion yuan ($2,056 billion) at the end of the first quarter of 2025, a 47% drop compared to the result posted in the same period of the previous year.

This tension, however, could ease as a result of the agreement between the United States and China, which includes a significant reduction in the tariffs initially imposed. Chinese products imported into the country will be taxed at 55%, while those going from the United States to China will be taxed at 10%.