Temu and Shein: Their marketing is overwhelming

The only equitable and workable solution is via duties.

“I saw my wife’s Shein invoice in November. For a mixed parcel, it included 20% duty,” he said. “So the duty our business pays for imported clothing, which is 50% to 60% of our buy, must either be dropped to 20%, or the duty Shein and Temu pay must be increased to 45%.

“Local retailers and manufacturers could be given another advantage which wouldn’t be unfair to the internationals; like most South African clothing retailers, we’re looking to source more locally. If the 21% duty on imported fabrics was dropped, we could source much more locally, and be much more competitive. I believe that if the government dropped that duty on fabric, there would be a steep increase in local sourcing by most retailers.”

However, he wondered how attractive that would be to the Ministry of Finance, which controls duties. “It would help create jobs, perhaps lots of jobs, like the 300 000 talked about for the CTFL Masterplan. But they would be relatively low paying jobs – around R5000 to R8000 a month – so while they would pay UIF, they wouldn’t really contribute to the tax base, while the government would lose the import duty on imported fabrics.”

He said the impact of Shein and Temu was much more marked on women’s wear, “where fast fashion and a huge variety are more important than they are for men’s wear, where there aren’t as many styles, and being able to touch the fabric is more important”.

“Shein and Temu offer a huge variety – much more than we could possibly offer – and that includes large sizes, which is something that we specialise in.

“But what I really applaud them for is their marketing strategies. They’re overwhelming.

“We use the same online vehicles, but of course we don’t have a fraction of their budgets, so we’d be wasting our time trying to compete head on.”