When the duty-free limit of 150 euros was abolished in the EU at the turn of the year, it was replaced by a flat-rate fee of 3 euros per product group for small packages. According to a new report from the German e-commerce association bevh, this has had immediate consequences for Chinese platforms.
The revenue for Shein, Temu and AliExpress on the German market fell by 35.5 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, landing at 566 million euros. The combined market share of the three Asian platforms also fell from 5.3 percent in the second quarter to 3.1 percent in the third quarter.
As early as last summer Ehandel.se reported on how Temu and Shein began to decline in the face of the new customs rules, and this picture is now confirmed by the first quarterly figures.
Domestic traders do not benefit
Despite the Asian giants declining, domestic e-commerce companies do not appear to have benefited much from the situation. Total German e-commerce increased by only 2.9 percent to 18.5 billion euros during the quarter, which is a growth rate below the local inflation rate of 3.3 percent. Alien Mulyk, CEO of bevh, comments on the development in the report:
The rapid growth of Temu and Shein in Germany has stalled. This also leads to a decline in turnover on the total market, without domestic players being able to benefit from the weakening of Asian competitors.
Mulyk also states that duties are not enough on their own. She believes that the EU must strengthen market controls and ensure that existing laws are enforced more strictly in the future.
In November, an additional handling fee of 2 euros will be added for small packages from third countries, in addition to the already introduced flat-rate fee.