TMW #208 | The CX race to the bottom
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Temu’s sledgehammer CX is putting pressure on retailers to follow suit, but will pandering to consumers’ base instincts catch on across all industries? Has it already done so?
Let me tell you a story about e-commerce in 2025. It starts with a confession.
I tried out Temu for the first time a few weeks back.
My partner and I moved back to Australia late last year after five years away. After finally finding a place to live, we suddenly realized that neither of us own any furniture or appliances or any of the other stuff you need to live with some level of comfort.
This led me to Temu, primarily out of curiosity and a touch of cost consciousness. And what I found was… a giant slap in the face! Temu is more casino than Vegas. As I entered the site, I was given a chance to spin and win, where I narrowly missed the 100%-off prize. Not to worry: I was given another spin, where I won the top prize of 100% off three items, just as long as I claimed them within five minutes.

To claim my prize, I had to sign up in the app… my next mistake. Every single day since that fateful day, I have received two emails with escalating subject lines and discounts. The one thing I had in my basket – but didn’t buy – was originally $24.21. Recent emails have dropped that price to $2.45, with a reference that the item “previously cost $24.21.” I even got an email with the subject line: “We regret to tell you… Keanu Taylor.” What do you regret to tell me? Has my nan just died? Am I being evicted by my landlord?
Temu’s great regret that it wished to communicate with me was that my item was the last of its kind in stock… although when the emails started up again the next day, it appeared some stock had miraculously been found! Hoorah!
I could spend all day taking the piss out of Temu’s customer experience, but the reality is that what Temu does, works. It’s the fastest-growing ecommerce platform of all time and the second most-visited ecommerce website in the world after Amazon. Temu was only launched in 2022 – its growth is supernatural.
And Temu’s ascendance has become a real challenge for ecommerce businesses and retailers worldwide. The Chinese supply chain that it has harnessed and organized simply cannot be beaten on price. So, if we can’t beat Temu on price, is superior customer experience the only way to beat them?
On the face of it, that would seem like an easy thing to do given my experience of Temu’s sledgehammer CX. But the growth numbers don’t lie. So, is the combo of price optimization and gamification accelerating a CX race to the bottom? And could it spread beyond retail?
Stay Curious,
Keanu Taylor
Make sense of marketing technology.
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Want to share something interesting or be featured in The Martech Weekly? Drop me a line at juan@themartechweekly.com.