Online clothing retailer Zando has announced an international online shopping division called Zando Global to compete against Chinese e-commerce players Temu and Shein.
“With the rise of Shein and Temu, South African consumers have often found themselves hesitant to order internationally due to concerns about product quality, delivery reliability, and returns processes,” Zando states.
According to Zando, it will offer a trustworthy alternative for shoppers who want to buy international products without the uncertainties.
It said Zando Global will ensure South African shoppers can easily receive, collect, and return a wide assortment of over 200,000 products — offering hassle-free shopping with local operations.
Zando Global will also offer quality assurance guarantees, inspecting every product before dispatching it to a customer.
“With the launch of Zando Global, we’re thrilled to provide South Africans with a solution that addresses their concerns about ordering internationally,” said Zando CEO Morgane Imbert.
“Now, they can enjoy the same sought-after products with the peace of mind that comes from shopping with a local company they know and trust.”
Zando’s move to offer an importing service comes as Takealot is looking to sell its fashion retailer Superbalist over concerns about increased competition from Shein and Temu.
Three weeks ago, Temu and Shein’s logistics partner, Buffalo International Logistics, revealed that they had experienced such a surge in orders they were struggling to cope.
Zando Global is also using Buffalo.
The logistics company notified customers that their Temu and Shein purchases would be delayed by about a week due to an influx of orders from South Africa.
This bodes exceptionally well for Temu, which only launched locally on 17 January 2024.
Temu sells products at prices that South African retailers cannot match. It includes its popular coupon discount and free shipping services.
Most products’ prices range from R10 to R300, with some more expensive ones, such as inverters and batteries, crossing the R1,000 mark.
This has led to complaints that it was selling products below cost, potentially making it impossible for local e-commerce players to survive.
It also faces allegations about questionable labour practices in the United States and elsewhere.
Temu has strongly denied the allegations and said its standards and practices align with those of major U.S. e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon and eBay.
“Temu demands strict compliance with all regulatory standards and reserves the right to sever ties with any business that breaches our Code of Conduct or the law,” the company said.
In addition to aggressively-priced products, Temu embarked on a huge online marketing campaign in South Africa, which is showing good results.
The Temu: Shop Like a Billionaire app is the most downloaded app in South Africa among Android and iOS users.
It beat WhatsApp, Capitec Bank, Facebook, Shein, TikTok, Showmax, Spotify, Instagram, and other popular mobile services.
Temu’s rapid growth in South Africa, fuelled by millions of rands spent on marketing, is unsurprising — it did exactly the same in the United States.
It spent an estimated $3 billion on online marketing in the United States in 2023 and is set to increase this amount significantly this year.
Goldman Sachs analysts estimated that Temu spent $1.2 billion on Meta-owned platforms like Facebook and Instagram in 2023, making it Meta’s biggest advertiser.
Research shows that Temu’s aggressive online marketing is working. Millions of consumers now use their app to shop online following its ubiquitous marketing.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon executives are more concerned about Temu and Shein than local competitors like Walmart and Target.
The same is happening in South Africa. Temu and Shein are experiencing rapid growth, which is worrying Takealot and other online retailers.
It will also be interesting to see how Zando Global performs in the months to come.
Running a lead-time or just-in-time importing service from South Africa is challenging, and even veterans like Raru were caught off-guard by a sudden shift in the market when Covid-19 hit in 2020.
After months of complaints of long delivery times, and being unresponsive to order cancellation and refund requests, Raru went bankrupt.
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