Shein Is Gone, Temu Is Back: Who You’re Bidding Against This Q4

From Growing Ecommerce – The Retail Growth Podcast · 28:17

Show by Smarter Ecommerce

Shein has gone quiet in Google Ads, Temu is back, and a low-cost marketplace called Joom is surging. Here’s who you’re bidding against this peak season.Mike Ryan and Chris Scharmueller look at what changed in Chinese commerce advertising since the EU’s new €3 per-item duty on low-value parcels took effect in July. The good news: there’s less pressure in the auction than last year. The catch: who’s left.In smec’s advertiser panel, Temu showed up as a competitor for about three quarters of advertisers before the tariffs, dropped to around a third, and is now back to about half. Shein has been winding down its ads since spring and is close to gone. The surprise is Joom: up from about 10% of advertisers to roughly a third, and two thirds in fashion and lifestyle, despite paying the same tariffs. Why it keeps spending is an open question.Then the shops that don’t exist: fake heritage brands. A local-sounding name, a founding year, AI-generated founders standing in a Berlin store, and a €6 shirt from China sold for €60, “marked down” from €110. The markup is so high the tariff barely touches them. The hosts found hundreds of these in Google Ads data, and they’ve taken a share of Shein’s place in the auction.The hosts also compare what shoppers see at checkout on each site, and explain why Shein’s next half-year results could show the full damage.First, two Google updates: a push to make AI Mode results shareable, one more step away from retailers’ own websites, and reports that Google is feeding scrapers and rank trackers shuffled, “poisoned” search results.Want to keep an eye on this through Black Friday? smec Market Observer tracks the Shopping impression share of Amazon, Temu, eBay, AliExpress and other big players in European Google Shopping, week by week.💡 Key TakeawaysOverall, competitive pressure from Chinese commerce players in Google Shopping is lower than last year, a net benefit for advertisers going into peak season. The mix of who’s left has changed.Since 1 July 2026, the EU charges a flat €3 customs duty per item on parcels worth under €150. Some countries add their own handling fees on top.Temu’s comeback: in smec’s advertiser panel it went from about 75% of advertisers before the tariffs, to around a third straight after, and back to about half now.Shein has been winding down its ads since March, with a sharp drop in June, and is now close to absent. Its first-half 2026 revenue grew just 1% and adjusted operating profit halved. The hosts expect the second-half results to show the full effect of the European ad pullback.Joom is the new player: up from about 10% of advertisers to roughly a third, and about two thirds in fashion and lifestyle, where Shein used to be most active.At checkout, Shein and Joom show the tariff in full. Temu has started offering a discount on the tariff to protect its conversion rate. Fake heritage shops don’t show it at all.Fake heritage brands are the hardest to fight: AI-generated founder photos, fake markdowns, pushes to buy multiples (the duty is charged per item), fake urgency, and delivery that takes around ten days because the goods ship from China.Rank trackers report “poisoned” Google results since 20 September: up to 25% of results at peak and 5–11% per day since October. Ads and shopping results look unaffected so far. Google hasn’t commented.🔗 Resources & Linkssmec Market Observer, track the big players in Google Shopping: https://smarter-ecommerce.com/en/smec-market-observer/Our earlier episode, The EU Is Breaking Temu & Shein: [ADD URL]Search Engine Journal, Google is poisoning search results for rank trackers: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/analysis-google-is-poisoning-search-results-for-rank-trackers/592873/smec (Smarter Ecommerce): https://www.smarter-ecommerce.comsmec on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/smarter-ecommerce-gmbhMike Ryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeryanretail/Christian Scharmüller on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-scharm%C3%BCller/Subscribe for a new Growing Ecommerce episode every two weeks—Growing Ecommerce is brought to you by smec (Smarter Ecommerce), helping 300+ brands and retailers manage €620M in annual ad spend by combining AI-powered PPC software with human strategic expertise.#GoogleAds #Temu #Shein #GrowingEcommerce #EcommerceAbout Smarter Ecommerce (smec):Smarter Ecommerce (smec) empowers e-commerce brands with AI-driven PPC automation that optimizes for profit and business outcomes while maintaining strategic control.The platform activates first-party data - profit margins, customer lifetime value, and key business metrics - to automate campaign optimization toward goals like profitability and efficient growth, while detailed campaign insights provide full transparency and enable PPC teams to focus on strategic oversight rather than manual execution.As a Google Premier Partner and three-time Microsoft Retail Partner of the Year, smec manages over €500 million in ad spend and…

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