
Blockchain 17 Feb, 2025
TEMU spends over $3 billion yearly on advertising – but that’s not the only reason they’re the fastest growing eCommerce company globally. They have an intuitive shopping app that keeps buyers hooked and drives conversions. At Cubix, we can make something similar (or even better) for your eCommerce business.
Great, another TEMU ad!
TEMU ads are everywhere, and more often than not, many of us end up clicking on them. You keep browsing the TEMU shopping app, and before you realize it, you have already spent hundreds of dollars on things you could’ve lived without.
But hey, that’s what shopping addiction is all about, and an eCommerce business that capitalizes on this mindset drives conversions by the millisecond. That’s the kind of success the TEMU app has been experiencing, and if you want your eCommerce business to be just as successful, you need to build an app like TEMU.
According to Forbes, by 2027, over 23% of retail purchases will be made online. Therefore, this is the perfect time to tap into this rapidly growing industry.
Read More: Price to Build a Marketplace App
In this post, we’ll discuss everything you need to do to build an app like TEMU that drives conversions, keeps buyers hooked and coming back, and enhances your online retail business’s overall digital presence.
TEMU is an online shopping app launched in 2022 that offers products at ultra-low prices compared to traditional retailers. Users can form teams with friends and family to place group orders that meet the minimum quantity required to unlock amazing discounts.
By ‘teaming up’ and increasing demand within their trusted social circles, TEMU enables customers to make multiple orders at once to unlock discounts that they couldn’t have availed while shopping solo. The company name “TEMU” stems from the phrase “team up,” reflecting the TEMU app’s group purchasing model.
After launching in 2022, TEMU rapidly gained adoption thanks to innovative features tapping into people’s social networks. By blending social networking and commerce, TEMU delivers a unique experience that is quite different and addictive compared to standard online shopping.
Here are some of the standout features that have fueled the adoption of the TEMU shopping app in 2024:
Read More: The Essential Features Of An eCommerce App
Before investing significant time and money into app development, it’s critical to deeply understand your target market by conducting detailed research, including:
Thorough upfront research across these areas will inform smarter product decisions down the line and focus development on delighting users.
Read More: eCommerce App Development – A Potential Revenue Catalyst
With market research completed, clearly define your app’s purpose and target audience next. Critical questions to answer include:
Having a laser focus on who you’re building your eCommerce app for and why is imperative for product/market fit. Do this before moving forward with the eCommerce app development process.
Read More: Take Your Business Skyward With A Robust eCommerce App
With your goals and audience clarified, map out the key features and functionality your eCommerce app will require to deliver core value. Consider including:
Carefully prioritize must-have minimum viable product (MVP) functionality versus nice-to-haves for future releases. Translate specifications into clear requirements and user stories for eCommerce app development teams.
Read More: 15 Key Features for a Successful Mobile Commerce App
The technology powering your app significantly impacts eCommerce app development costs, timelines, and scalability. Selecting appropriate tools is an early critical decision.
Evaluate options and select stacks balancing productivity, capabilities, and operational requirements like expected traffic.
Read More: Shopify or Magento? Which is the best eCommerce platform?
Without a polished UI/UX design, even the most valuable apps will fail. To make an app like TEMU, you need to ensure that it at least looks like it, with an interface that is just as responsive and intuitive. Invest heavily in design, including:
Great design requires continuous iterative refinement based on usability studies. Don’t cut corners here.
Read More: UI/UX is the key to a successful Customer-Centric App
To enable seamless checkout completion, you’ll need to integrate various backend services, for example:
Proper integration enhances user experiences and offloads heavy operational burdens your team shouldn’t worry about.
Read More: Top 9 Features of Every Successful Marketplace Platform
With specifications locked down, dedicated eCommerce app development teams assemble components:
Careful versioning of APIs during eCommerce app development projects prevents unexpected surprises down the road.
Read More: Key Factors That Influence eCommerce App Development Process
Before launch, your eCommerce app must pass comprehensive quality assurance (QA) and testing to catch bugs, including:
Following test-driven development (TDD), best practices help eCommerce app developers guard against avoidable issues and bugs across iterative launches. Consider beta testing with customers before rolling your eCommerce app out.
TEMU has rapidly become a big player in the eCommerce industry because of its commitment to providing a high-quality, stable, and responsive shopping experience. So, make sure you don’t cut corners while building a shopping app like TEMU.
Read More: AI in QA: AI’s Real Impact on Software Testing in 2025
Once live, aggressive promotional outreach is required to drive adoption, including:
Rapidly iterate on what works through rigorous experimentation and analytics. Grow sustainably by delighting early adopters.
Read More: How to Market an App Successfully – A Guide for Startups
Overall, the cost to build a shopping app like TEMU can be around $150,000 – $300,000. Mid-tier apps with basic capabilities can cost up to $100,000. The cost to develop an eCommerce app with complex features and custom designs can exceed $300,000.
The most cost-effective approach is to start with an MVP – a minimum viable product. Build the critical features only to validate your app’s viability before making additional investments.
Ultimately, the overall cost of app development will depend on your project specifications and timelines. Working with experienced developers at Cubix can help you optimize your budget while staying aligned with your business goals.
If built right, an eCommerce app like TEMU can exceed your revenue goals and expectations by some margin.
When estimating the cost to develop an app like TEMU, eCommerce businesses should consider:
Will your app be iOS, Android, or both? Supporting both platforms is ideal for maximizing market reach. Set a budget of around $100,000 – $150,000 for a quality cross-platform build.
Core features like user accounts, product listings, shopping carts, and checkout capability cost $40,000 – $60,000. Advanced features like promotions, user profiles, and order tracking add $15,000 – $30,000.
A polished, intuitive design drives adoption and sales. Expect to spend around $25,000 on TEMU-like UX/UI. Simple sites cost less, while more visually appealing sites cost more.
TEMU built its own inventory and order management system from scratch. Integrating an existing eCommerce platform like Shopify or Magento streamlines development and initially saves money.
Payment and user data security should be your top priority. So, factor in $5,000+ for encryption, SSL certificates, and penetration testing.
Plan for $10,000+ yearly for feature additions, technical maintenance, hosting fees, and user support. Launching an app is only the beginning of your product journey.
While conceptualizing and designing a custom mobile shopping experience is a solid starting point, eventually, you’ll need an expert development team to translate plans into reality.
Building a polished, scalable iOS and Android app requires specialized mobile app development teams across the technology stack, from databases and infrastructure to smooth front ends.
This is where working with a proven eCommerce app development company like Cubix offers huge advantages.
“TEMU’s recent success shows how important the right eCommerce app development approach is. With an easy-to-navigate, feature-rich, and compelling shopping app coupled with an intelligent promotional strategy, any online retail business can scale exponentially within a few years.”
– Umair Ahmed, Senior Program Manager at Cubix
With over a decade of experience building, launching, and maintaining hundreds of complex eCommerce apps, Cubix offers startups and enterprises alike comprehensive support, including:
So, to build an app like TEMU and kickstart your eCommerce venture’s success, partner with Cubix today!
Read More: Is Your eCommerce Platform Optimized for Peak Seasons?
Category