What you should know about the Chinese-based Temu shopping app

NEW YORK - It seems like everyone is talking about the app Temu, a Chinese-owned online retailer that has gained popularity in the U.S. 

"The prices are reasonable and kind of cheap," said Ian who has purchased a few items from the site.

Temu is similar to Amazon or Wish. It offers just about any product you can think of. You can buy toys, clothing, small home appliances, outdoor furniture, power tools,  and everything in between.

It's incredibly cheap, sunglasses for $2, necklaces for as low as .78 cents, and power tools for less than $5.

The Chinese-based company is an e-commerce app where you can find really low prices on popular products. Because the products are manufactured in China, the company can keep prices really low for the consumer. 

Temu also uses a creative marketing strategy called reverse marketing. 

This is where they identify products that are really popular among consumers and then relay that information to manufacturers to produce more of those products. 

"So they're kind of cutting out the fluff in the middle and not having to spend more on marketing dollars to tell consumers what they want to buy. They are basing their sales off what people want," said Andrea Woroch, a retail expert.

Temu launched in late 2022. It's the number one free shopping app in the app store, beating out well-established companies like Amazon, and Walmart. It offers free shipping to the U.S., that said though those who have used the app say it takes a while to receive the goods, 2 weeks if not longer.

However, there are still some folks who are skeptical of the cheap prices. "It's definitely a legitimate app and a legitimate site place to buy stuff. But buyer beware, anytime you buy something really cheap, you have to think about the quality of the item," said Woroch.