Temu draws local merchants in Germany

Temu’s rise in Germany now includes German merchants selling on the platform, not just Chinese exporters shipping bargain goods into Europe. (tagesschau.de) Tagesschau reported on April 12 that domestic sellers in Germany have started using Temu as a sales channel as the marketplace expands beyond its original low-cost import model. Temu also runs a European seller portal that pitches low-cost setup, marketing tools and onboarding support. (tagesschau.de) (seller-eu.temu.com) That shift comes after a sharp jump in Temu’s scale in Europe. The European Commission said Temu crossed the threshold for a Very Large Online Platform on May 31, 2024, after reporting more than 45 million monthly active users in the European Union. (ec.europa.eu) By the first half of 2025, Temu had 115.7 million monthly users in the European Union, according to reported platform disclosures, and Germany was its largest European market with 19.3 million monthly users. A Händlerbund market roundup, citing Ecommerce News data, said Germany alone was nearing 20 million users. (ecommercebridge.com) (ohn.haendlerbund.de) Germany’s broader marketplace rankings show how fast Temu moved. ECDB said in October 2025 that Temu had entered Germany’s top five marketplaces after roughly 300 percent growth from 2023 to 2024. (ecdb.com) Temu and DHL deepened their partnership on April 4, 2025, with a memorandum focused on logistics for small and medium-sized businesses and support for Temu’s “local-to-local” model in Europe. The companies said that model is expected to eventually account for 80 percent of Temu’s European sales. (prnewswire.com) The platform’s expansion has run alongside tougher scrutiny from Brussels. The European Commission opened formal proceedings against Temu on October 31, 2024, and said on July 28, 2025, that it had preliminarily found Temu in breach of Digital Services Act rules on assessing the risk of illegal products. (ec.europa.eu 1) (ec.europa.eu 2) That pressure matters for the business model in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where Temu’s growth has been tied to very low prices and fast customer acquisition. Tagesschau said established marketplaces have struggled to match Temu on price, even as local merchants increasingly decide they cannot ignore its audience. (tagesschau.de) The result is a more complicated picture than Temu’s early image as an outside disruptor. In Germany, it is still under regulatory pressure, but it is also becoming part of the local marketplace system it set out to challenge. (tagesschau.de)