Temu is building an army of US sellers, hiring employees from Amazon and Walmart

• Temu is hiring from Amazon and Walmart to recruit US sellers.
• Temu continues to hire business development managers to entice brands to sign up.
• The company aims to expand its US seller base as it faces the potential end of de minimis shipping.

Temu has been hiring employees from e-commerce incumbents like Amazon and Walmart as it looks to recruit US sellers.

The Chinese e-commerce company has said it's been making a big push to hire business development managers. At Temu, working in business development involves bringing new brands and manufacturers onto its site and then helping them develop selling strategies, according to LinkedIn postings. Managers pitch potential vendors on the advantages of selling on Temu, and once they've been onboarded, they guide them in product planning, marketing, and other operations.

Many of these new hires have joined Temu in the last six months and previously held similar positions at more established e-commerce companies. At least a dozen have previously worked at Amazon, according to Business Insider's analysis of LinkedIn profiles. Temu has also hired people from Walmart, which has a third-party online marketplace, and TikTok, which has quickly built up a base of sellers with its e-commerce offering, Shop.

"We have been expanding our team to help bring more US sellers onto the platform, giving them more choice and a low-cost way to grow their businesses," a Temu spokesperson said. "To support this, we have hired experienced people to help expand opportunities for local sellers and strengthen local sales."

Temu's business development managers have also attended e-commerce conferences, including several that are popular with Amazon sellers, like the Prosper Show. In their pitches to potential vendors, they tend to emphasize Temu's rapid growth and huge assortment of products.

Temu expands in the US

When Temu first launched, it operated using a managed marketplace model in which manufacturers consolidated their inventory into warehouses in China and then shipped to consumers across borders.

Temu still fulfills many of its orders that way, though it officially opened its marketplace to US sellers in March 2024 and has been growing its base of local sellers since then. This newer model allows sellers with US warehouses to handle fulfillment and logistics themselves.

It also helps Temu to hedge against changes to the de minimis provision, a part of US customs law that allows shippers to avoid paying duty on shipments going directly to customers and valued at less than $800. De minimis helps retailers like Temu and Shein keep costs low, though critics say the provision hurts American manufacturers and allows for the import of illicit goods like fentanyl.

The Trump administration has said it would bring an end to de minimis once customs officials establish a new process for collecting duty on packages sent using the provision.

Rick Watson, the CEO and founder of RMW Commerce Consulting, said since the US is Temu's largest market, there's "a lot of risk if seller recruitment efforts do not succeed here."

"It takes experience to understand how and where to recruit sellers, so it's very common for these types to go from one company to another," he said.

Besides in the US, Temu is hiring business development managers in Europe, Canada, and the UK.

Temu's parent company PDD Holdings, which also operates Pinduoduo in China, reported 24% revenue growth for the fourth quarter of 2024 on Thursday.

During the earnings call, co-CEO Lei Chen referred to "changes in the external environment" that could pose "challenges to our global business," but did not specify what those changes were. He said the company would "continue to explore new business models" and "experiment with innovative localized supply chain solutions."

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