Algolia data shared exclusively with Sourcing Journal shows that only 8 percent of consumers surveyed said they had purchased items from Amazon Haul—and just three in 10 consumers said they knew about the service at all.
Comparatively, 28 percent of consumers said they have shopped on Temu in the last six months, and 22 percent said the same about Shein.
Piyush Patel, Algolia’s chief strategic business development officer, said those figures don’t surprise him; while consumers use Shein, Temu and other low-cost marketplaces for serendipity, they rely on Amazon for what they already know they want to purchase—and Amazon Haul lacks the gamification featured on other low-cost marketplaces.
“I don’t go [to Amazon] looking for random, one-off things. I only go to Amazon when I know what I want; I’m not going there to see what’s available,” he said. “But on Temu, Shein and TikTok, those engagements are designed to present you with things, even if you’re not looking for them, while you’re engaging in…content.”
Scott Ohsman, vice president of commerce at Quickfire LLC, said part of the reason Amazon Haul hasn’t been popular among consumers is that Amazon doesn’t seem to have spent much money on its marketing.
“They haven’t put a full throttle of advertising, marketing [spend] flooding to that particular service,” he said. “The other thing they haven’t unleashed is the ability within the marketplace to, for sellers on Haul, retarget and use Amazon’s first-party data to advertise. That’s a huge weapon they have not unleashed.”
But despite its low adoption rates among consumers, 28 percent of consumers said they trust Haul most when making purchases. Temu came in at No. 2 for trust, with 17 percent of consumers saying they trusted it most. Shein saw 13 percent of consumers saying the same.
Ohsman said, for Haul, that trust comes with the name.
“It’s got the word ‘Amazon’ in it,” he said. “That’s 25 years of built-up credibility…They’ve built such tremendous customer trust over the years, and so they put Amazon ‘fill in the blank,’ and people are like, ‘Oh, it’s Amazon. I ordered it; it got here. Must be good.’”
Shein and Temu, meanwhile, still have something left to prove to consumers, said Patel.
“Existing retailers have built trust, which then allows them to say, ‘OK, I’m going to use your data for AI,’ whereas these new brands haven’t built trust—not just for your data and AI, but in general; for your purchase, your credit card data, your address,” he said. “That lack of trust erodes both the desire to purchase from them and the desire to allow data and AI to service them.”
That shows up in the data; about one-quarter of consumers said they don’t trust low-cost marketplaces using any of their data to provide personalized recommendations, and another 25 percent of consumers said they only feel comfortable with their data being used if the marketplace is transparent about their security policies and data usage.
Four in 10 consumers said they purchase everyday clothing or accessories from low-cost marketplaces, and 36 percent of consumers said they purchase clothing or accessories for occasions.
More than half of consumers cited item quality issues as a challenge of shopping on low-cost marketplaces. In the apparel sector, items purchased on platforms like Shein or Temu often lack the durability of items purchased from traditional retailers at a higher price point.
But despite consumers pointing out quality issues, the quality they actually receive from low-cost retailers keeps them coming back. Algolia’s data shows that 34 percent of consumers said they made a repeat purchase from a low-cost marketplace because they felt satisfied with the quality of their first purchase. One-quarter of consumers said while items they received in their first orders may have had quality issues, the prices the marketplaces offered couldn’t be beat, prompting them to order more items.
Patel said consumers’ expectations remain a moving target—and that low-cost items on platforms like Shein, Temu, Amazon Haul and TikTok Shop continue to change shoppers’ minds on what type of quality is acceptable.
“[Some of these items] are things you buy to wear once. They’re not really washable; they’re not going to last,” he said. “It’s a shift in mindset, and that’s why I think [a] major portion of people are like, ‘Oh, it’s poor quality. But, OK, I’ll buy it anyway.’”
And indeed, low prices continue to drive consumers to low-cost marketplaces; 65 percent of those surveyed said these apps’ prices motivate them to shop there. Ohsman said part of U.S. consumers’ affinity for low prices came from Amazon’s traditional marketplace, which has now overtaken the consumer mind.
The good news for traditional brands and retailers offering items at higher price points is that many consumers still feel a connection to them; Algolia’s data shows that 37 percent of consumers said they’d choose to shop at a traditional brand or retailer over a low-cost marketplace because they trust them more. And 34 percent of consumers said they’d continue shopping with traditional brands and retailers because they believe they have higher-quality products.
Patel said continuing to capitalize on those differentiators will be how traditional retailers keep themselves relevant in consumers’ eyes.
“A little impulse purchase isn’t going to be the long-term driver for [how] retailers build their business,” Patel said. “I don’t think they should be chasing the same kinds of…products and quality that these marketplaces are doing.”
