Withholding the storm: Online challengers fail to break Amazon’s dominance as Temu growth plateaus

Despite the recent meteoric rise of low cost Chinese e-commerce brands, Shein and Temu, Amazon remains more resilient than ever, new research finds.

Consumer usage data from mobile analytics and business intelligence firm GWS Magnify reveals that Amazon has shored up its market dominance in 2024.

Since the start of the year, its monthly active user numbers in the UK have held steady at around 26 million since January 2024.

Challenger Shein has seen the most impressive retail growth in 2024 so far. In January, it had nearly eight million monthly active users. But today it boasts over 10.5 million users – up 37% since the turn of the year.

For the first time Temu’s growth rate appears to be plateauing, with user numbers down slightly (4%) since the seasonal highs at the turn of the year.

But user figures remain high at around 16 million monthly active users today, which is significantly more than Shein or Asos, and only slightly lower than eBay’s nearly 17.5 million.   

While Amazon’s user figures remain high, challenger brands continue to outperform the US online giant in terms of engagement figures. In 2024 so far, the average Temu user spends 18 minutes on the app each day; over double that of Amazon at nearly eight minutes.

Shein is also outdoing Amazon in terms of engagement with users averaging over eight minutes on its app each day. Overall, user engagement has remained steady this year in the UK with little change in app engagement across most brands.

As well as spending longer on the app, Temu users are also visiting the retailer more often than Amazon users. In 2024, the average Temu user opens the app over six times a day, compared to an average of four openings a day for Amazon.  

While Amazon’s user base remains resilient, Shein and Temu are proving especially popular amongst one group in particular: women.

81% of Shein users are female at present in the UK, compared to 54% for Amazon. Shien’s typical user is also much younger than the typical Amazon user - 39% of Shien’s customers are under the age of 34, compared to 30% for Amazon.

Likewise, Temu has a heavily female user skew as 63% of its customers are women. But, like Amazon, Temu also proves popular with older audiences as 30% of Temu’s UK audience are over the age of 55 compared to 31% for Amazon.

Dr Paul Carter, CEO, GWS Magnify, comments: “Amazon seems to have withheld the storm – its resilience over the last year against challenger brands is testament to its market dominance and future growth.”

But despite growth remaining steady, Amazon’s recent moves to bring in its own direct from China discount section is acknowledgement of the threat posed by the likes of Temu and Shein.” 

“In a market where price rules, Amazon can afford to join the race to the bottom. But it also needs to ensure it’s winning the battle for user engagement if it’s to remain the dominant player in the market.”

“The gamification of shopping is something that Temu in particular has mastered with great reward which sees customers coming back and opening the app many more times a day than Amazon. But Amazon’s robust and wide audience means it is, at least for now, still the top of the pile in UK online retail.”