Temu and Shein send 460,000 parcels daily

Cheap parcels are the story here — not just cheap clothes. Germany’s main retail lobby has pushed a new estimate into the debate, saying Temu and Shein now send roughly 460,000 packages into Germany every day and drain €2.4 billion a year from the country’s economic value added. The point is not that German shoppers like bargains — everyone knew that. The point is that Berlin and Brussels are increasingly treating this as a customs, safety, and market-fairness problem, not just an e-commerce trend. (einzelhandel.de) ### Where does the 460,000 figure come from? It comes from a study by IW Consult commissioned by Handelsverband Deutschland, or HDE — the main German retail association. HDE says Temu and Shein together ship 460,000 parcels into Germany each day, and about 12 million into the EU daily. That makes Germany one visible slice of a much bigger European pipeline. (einze([einzelhandel.de)hat is Germany actually claiming it loses? HDE’s headline number is €2.4 billion a year in lost value added for the German economy. Inside that, it says €1.3 billion falls on retail alone. The same estimate says governments miss about €420 million a year in tax revenue, and that more than 40,000 jobs are tied up in the shift away from domestic retail — includi(einzelhandel.de)umbers, so they are best read as pressure-building estimates, not neutral national accounts. (einzelhandel.de) ### Why do German retailers say this is unfair? Basically, the complaint is not just “they’re cheaper.” It’s that domestic sellers have to carry the full weight of EU product, tax, and compliance rules, while ultra-low-value cross-border parcels are harder to police at that scale. HDE argues that the flood of small shipments overwhelms customs and weakens enforceme(einzelhandel.de)are easier to inspect and punish. (einzelhandel.de) ### Is this only about Germany? No — Germany is the example, but the pressure is European. The European Commission has already said low-value e-commerce imports hit 4.6 billion items in 2024, about 12 million a day, with 91% coming from China. Once volumes get that big, this stops looking like a niche retail issue and starts looking like infrastructure — customs in(einzelhandel.de)aste infrastructure. (europarl.europa.eu) ### Why are Temu and Shein in the crosshairs? Because they sit at the center of the model Brussels wants to control — direct-from-China, low-price, low-value shipments arriving one parcel at a time. In February 2025, the European Commission rolled out a broader e-commerce enforcement push and sep(europarl.europa.eu)d distance if unsafe goods or misleading practices show up on the marketplace. (ec.europa.eu) ### What changes next? The near-term fight is over fees, customs data, and the old duty-free logic for parcels under €150. The EU has been moving to scrap that loophole, and Reuters reported last year that Brussels was weighing a €2 handling fee on low-value e-commerce parcels as part of customs reform. (ec.europa.eu)ce for millions of barely screened packages. (taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu) ### Why does the US matter here? Because when the US makes this business model harder, Europe worries the volume gets redirected. That was already the concern in 2025 after Washington tightened the low-value import route that Temu and Shein had relied on. So Germany’s new report lands in a market that already fears diversion — more parcels pushed toward Europe just as Brussels is trying to slow the flow. (dw.com) ### Bottom line? The German report is a lobbying document, but it lands because it fits the broader facts. Europe is processing an enormous surge of low-value Chinese parcels, and policymakers increasingly see that as a structural problem. Temu and Shein are not just being criticized for being cheap anymore — they are being treated as a test case for whether Europe can still enforce its own market rules at scale. (einzelhandel.de)