London, 16th July 2024 – Amazon Prime Day has quickly become one of the most anticipated retail events of the year, with discounts offered by brands beyond the retail giant. However, despite the recent meteoric rise of low-cost Chinese ecommerce brands, Shein and Temu, the latest data shows that Amazon remains more resilient than ever.

Consumer usage data from mobile analytics and business intelligence firm GWS Magnify reveals that Amazon has shored up its market dominance in 2024:

  • Since the start of the year, Amazon’s monthly active user numbers in the UK have held steady at around 26 million since January 2024
  •  Challenger Shein has seen the most impressive retail growth in 2024 so far. In January, Shein had nearly 8 million monthly active users. But today the ecommerce company boasts over 10.5 million users – up 37% since the turn of the year.
  • After its meteoric rise since launch, for the first time Temu’s growth rate appears to be plateauing, with user numbers down slightly (4%) since the seasonal highs at the turn of the year. But user figures remain high at around 16 million monthly active users today, which is significantly more than Shein or Asos, and only slightly lower than eBay’s nearly 17.5 million.

Engagement rules

While Amazon’s user figures remain high, challenger brands continue to outperform the ecommerce giant in terms of engagement figures. In 2024 so far, the average Temu user spends 18 minutes on the app each day; over double that of Amazon at nearly 8 minutes. Shein also has a slight edge over Amazon in terms of engagement with users averaging over 8 minutes on its app each day. Overall, user engagement has remained steady this year in the UK with little change in app engagement across most brands.

As well as spending longer on the app, Temu users are also visiting the retailer more often than Amazon users. In 2024, the average Temu user opens the app over 6 times a day, compared to an average of 4 openings a day for Amazon.  

The rise of female users on challenger ecommerce platforms

While Amazon’s user base remains resilient, Shein and Temu are proving especially popular amongst one group in particular: women.

Over four out five (81%) Shein users are female at present in the UK, compared to 54% for Amazon. Shien’s typical user is also much younger than the typical Amazon user – nearly two fifths (39%) of Shien’s customers are under the age of 34, compared to 30% for Amazon. Likewise, Temu has a heavily female user skew as 63% of its customers are women. But, like Amazon, Temu also proves popular with older audiences as 30% of Temu’s UK audience are over the age of 55 compared to 31% for Amazon.

Dr Paul Carter, CEO, GWS Magnify, commented: “Amazon seems to have withheld the storm – its resilience over the last year against challenger brands is testament to its market dominance and future growth.

But despite growth remaining steady, Amazon’s recent moves to bring in its own direct-from-China discount section is acknowledgement of the threat posed by the likes of Temu and Shein.

In a market where price rules, Amazon can afford to join the race to the bottom. But it also needs to ensure it’s winning the battle for user engagement if it’s to remain the dominant player in the market. The gamification of shopping is something that Temu in particular has mastered with great reward which sees customers coming back and opening the app many more times a day than Amazon. But Amazon’s robust and wide audience means it is, at least for now, still the top of the pile in UK online retail.”

-ENDS-

Methodology 
App engagement data was generated using Magnify, GWS’s mobile intelligence data platform. Magnify is comprised of key insights collected from consumers participating in our market research programs in the United States and the United Kingdom. These are real-life consumers who use their mobile devices as normal throughout the day so that the analytics data GWS gathers provides the most accurate picture of both the U.S. and U.K. mobile connectivity experience. In particular, data is anonymously collected from Android smartphones 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whenever and wherever the consumers use their devices. Data is reported in aggregate for market research purposes only. All information collected is weighted to a user’s demographic representation of each country’s adult population.

About GWS  
For most consumers today, their mobile device is their life’s remote control. As an independent mobile insights consulting firm, GWS measures every aspect of how people live, work and play via their mobile devices – as well as how mobile network performance affects them.  

 Combining our market-leading network benchmarking technology and methodology with deep behavioural data, we help businesses and organizations to drive innovation and deliver better customer experiences through mobile insights, anywhere in the world. Championing the needs of mobile users by understanding and testing the things that matter to them, we’ve evolved our technology and services in step with the needs of industry and consumers for over 25 years.  

 For more information visit https://www.gwsolutions.com/   

 Media Contact  
Adam Hudson   
Diffusion PR  
[email protected]  

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