How to Build an App like TEMU – A Comprehensive Guide

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.

What is TEMU?

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.

5 Best Features of the TEMU App

Here are some of the standout features that have fueled the adoption of the TEMU shopping app in 2024:

• Social Team Creation: Users can easily form buying teams by inviting contacts from their phonebook or social media friends to unlock group discounts.
• Chat Functionality: Team members can coordinate orders in real time via in-app messaging.
• Seamless Checkout: Robust integration with payment providers like Apple Pay facilitates rapid checkouts.
• Order Tracking: Shipment status updates provide transparency from click to doorstep delivery.
• Referral Rewards: Successful referrals that drive new app downloads earn users store credit rewards to incentivize viral growth.

Read More: The Essential Features Of An eCommerce App

How to Build an App like TEMU – 9 Simple Steps

Step 1: Conduct Thorough Market Research

Before investing significant time and money into app development, it’s critical to deeply understand your target market by conducting detailed research, including:

• Competitor Analysis: Study apps like TEMU to reverse engineer features, UI/UX design, business model, and pricing strategy. This will help you identify potential areas to differentiate.
• Market Size Estimates: Research your niche’s total addressable market (TAM) size and growth projections. A large, rapidly expanding market opens doors to a wide range of opportunities worth pursuing.
• Customer Research: Survey potential users in your target demographics to gain crucial insight into their buying factors, unmet needs, and problems your app could uniquely solve.

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

Step 2: Define Your App’s Purpose and Target Audience

With market research completed, clearly define your app’s purpose and target audience next. Critical questions to answer include:

• What specific user needs will my app meet? How is my value proposition fundamentally different from competitors? Get ultra-specific here.
• What common problems am I solving? Precisely identify the most pressing pain points your mobile app focuses on.
• Who is my target audience? Detail your buyer personas with demographics, behaviors, concerns, goals, and other attributes influencing product requirements.

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

Step 3: Map Out Primary Features and Functionality

With your goals and audience clarified, map out the key features and functionality your eCommerce app will require to deliver core value. Consider including:

For customers

• User account registration and management
• Intuitive catalog browsing and searching
• Persistent shopping carts tracking items
• Secure payment integration
• Order history and real-time delivery tracking

For store owners

• Admin portal to manage inventory, customers, etc
• Customer relationship management (CRM) system
• Sales and performance analytics and reporting

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

Step 4: Choose Technology Stack and Architecture

The technology powering your app significantly impacts eCommerce app development costs, timelines, and scalability. Selecting appropriate tools is an early critical decision.

Frontend Options

• JavaScript frameworks like React Native enable efficient cross-platform eCommerce app development.
• Native platforms like Xcode (iOS) and Android Studio (Android) maximize performance.

Backend Options

• Firebase provides turnkey authentication, databases, storage
• Custom Node.js and MongoDB codebases allow advanced customization

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?

Step 5: Design Compelling User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX)

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:

• Wireframing: Layout page composition and app navigation flows
• Visual Branding: Color palettes, iconography, and style guides visually reinforce brand identity
• Clickable Prototyping: Transform static screens into interactive click-through simulations
• Usability Testing: Solicit feedback from real users early and often to fix issues

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

Step 6: Integrate Payment, Shipping, and Tax APIs

To enable seamless checkout completion, you’ll need to integrate various backend services, for example:

• Payment gateways like Stripe securely authorize credit card transactions
• Shipping/tracking APIs from USPS, UPS, etc, provide live updates and power your tracking pages
• Tax calculation APIs handle complex jurisdictional regulations and matters related to taxation behind the scenes

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

Step 7: Develop the Backend, then Connect Frontend

With specifications locked down, dedicated eCommerce app development teams assemble components:

• Backend developers architect cloud servers, databases, REST APIs, and dashboards
• Frontend developers connect sleek UIs to backend APIs using JavaScript/TypeScript

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

Step 8: Thoroughly Test Before Going Live

Before launch, your eCommerce app must pass comprehensive quality assurance (QA) and testing to catch bugs, including:

• Unit testing to verify individual functions work properly
• Integration testing ensures different modules play nice together
• End-to-end user acceptance testing replicating real customer workflows

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

Step 9: Promote Your App Post-Launch

Once live, aggressive promotional outreach is required to drive adoption, including:

• App Store Optimization (ASO) – optimize keywords and descriptions
• Social Media Campaigns – run targeted ads on Facebook/Instagram
• Influencer Marketing – recruit relevant bloggers/YouTubers to review your app
• Paid User Acquisition – Run paid marketing campaigns on platforms like Google, Facebook, and Instagram.
• Retargeting – remind users who abandoned signups or still have items in their carts to complete purchases.

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

How Much Does It Cost to Build an App Like TEMU

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.

Factors Influencing the App Development Costs

When estimating the cost to develop an app like TEMU, eCommerce businesses should consider:

Platform

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.

Features

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.

Custom Design

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.

eCommerce Integration

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.

Security

Payment and user data security should be your top priority. So, factor in $5,000+ for encryption, SSL certificates, and penetration testing.

Ongoing Costs

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.

How Cubix Can Help You Build a Shopping App Like TEMU

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:

• Initial Discovery and Planning: Helping solidify requirements for development teams
• UI/UX Design Services: Building wireframes, prototypes, branding guidelines
• Fullstack Development: iOS, Android, backend, web, API integrations
• Pre-launch Quality Assurance (QA): Identifying bugs before release
• Post-launch Support and Maintenance: Continuing to improve apps post-release
• Ongoing Hosting, Monitoring, and Management: Ensuring apps never go down

So, to build an app like TEMU and kickstart your eCommerce venture’s success, partner with Cubix today!

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