(Yicai) Nov. 29 -- American retail giants Walmart, Target, and Amazon are losing ground to Chinese e-commerce platforms Shein and Temu during the holiday shopping season, according to consultancy Attain Partners.

During the first eight hours of the latest Cyber Monday, Nov. 27, consumers in the United States spent USD30 on Pinduoduo's Temu on average, up USD9 from a year ago, per a report published by the Virginia-headquartered business consultancy. Meanwhile, shoppers splurged USD49 on Shein, unchanged from the major shopping day a year earlier.

In comparison, a single transaction at Walmart dropped by USD4 to USD49, that at Target slipped by USD3 to USD44, and Amazon purchases were USD1 smaller at USD36.

The data show that shoppers are confident and curious about new shopping platforms such as Temu and Shein, said Brian Mandelbaum, chief executive of Attain. Emerging platforms like Temu attract new consumers with an opportunity to steal market share from established giants such as Amazon, he added.

Consumers want to buy as much as their budget allows as the tailwind from excess savings is waning, per Irene Tunkel, chief US asset strategist at BCA Research.

Platforms selling low-priced goods such as Temu and Shein have seized on the opportunity and introduced hot items. Shein has added USD10 bathroom decorations and USD6 headphones, dresses, as well as jeans costing between USD13 and USD16, while Temu is selling USD9 dresses and women’s shoes costing as little as USD12.

In the first two weeks of November, Shein increased its advertising spend by 60 percent from a year ago, according to marketing intelligence firm SensorTower. At the same time, Temu doubled its ad spend. The fight for market share requires huge investments, and this strategy makes sense, said Jordi Ordonez, an e-commerce analyst.

Between December 2022 and last March, Amazon’s number of unique visitors in the US fell by 17 million to 211 million, according to data from Statista. During the same period, Temu saw an increase in unique visitors to 70.5 million from 44.5 million, and Shein recorded a boost of six million visitors to a total of 41 million.

Editor: Emmi Laine