Temu Ranks Third in UK E-commerce Traffic, Adding 8 Million Net New Users in One Year

Ebrun Original | December 21: According to the recently released "Online Nation" report by UK communications regulator Ofcom, the ranking of the top ten retail websites by traffic in the UK has seen significant changes. While Amazon and eBay continue to hold the top two spots, Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform Temu has rapidly climbed to third place, surpassing traditional retail and tech giants such as Tesco, Argos, and Apple, becoming the most notable variable on the list.

Data from Ipsos iris online audience measurement service shows that Temu's monthly traffic reached 28.4 million visits in May this year, only slightly lower than eBay's 30.7 million visits, with the gap narrowing further. Amazon remained at the top with 43.2 million monthly visits. From a trend perspective, Temu has for the first time demonstrated the realistic potential to challenge eBay's long-standing second-place position in the UK market.

Ranking	Platform	Monthly Adult User Scale (m)				UK Adult Internet User Coverage (May 2025)	Average Visit Duration per User (May 2025)
		May 2023	May 2024	May 2025	Net Growth
1	Amazon	41.4	41.5	43.2	1.7	88%	2:15
2	eBay	30.5	30.2	30.7	0.5	63%	1:18
3	Temu	13.8	20.1	28.4	8.3	58%	1:10
4	Apple	20.9	20.6	22.7	2.1	46%	0:18
5	Tesco	18.4	18.3	19.4	1.1	39%	0:22
6	Argos	16.1	17.4	18	0.6	37%	0:10
7	Asda	14.5	15.2	15.1	-0.2	31%	0:14
8	Lidl UK	11.1	12.8	14.6	1.9	30%	0:22
9	Vinted	9.4	11.4	14.3	2.9	29%	2:42
10	SHEIN	9.6	10.5	13.9	3.5	28%	1:50

The report indicates that Temu's user coverage in the UK has doubled over the past two years. As of May this year, it has reached 58% of the UK's adult internet users, adding approximately 8.3 million net new users over the year, making it the platform with the fastest user base expansion on the list. In terms of absolute growth, Temu's increase is about 4.8 times that of Amazon and 16.6 times that of eBay, highlighting its strong penetration speed in the UK e-commerce market.

However, compared to its rapid traffic expansion, Temu still has a significant weakness in user engagement depth. Data shows that its average visit duration per user is only 1 minute and 10 seconds, which is not only significantly lower than Vinted's 2 minutes and 42 seconds and Amazon's 2 minutes and 15 seconds, but also lower than SHEIN's 1 minute and 50 seconds and eBay's 1 minute and 18 seconds.

This suggests that Temu currently relies more on price and traffic-driven user acquisition. There is still considerable room for improvement in converting "low-price appeal" into higher-frequency, longer-duration user stays and more stable platform loyalty.

Looking at other platforms, SHEIN's user base grew by about 45% over the past year, maintaining relatively fast expansion, but its overall growth rate has clearly lagged behind Temu. The secondhand trading platform Vinted performed notably well, with a user base increase of about 53%, even surpassing SHEIN's growth rate, indicating the continued appeal of secondhand e-commerce in the UK market.

In contrast, Amazon and eBay's user growth has been relatively stable, which is unsurprising to some extent—when a platform already covers the vast majority of adult consumers in the UK, sustaining high growth naturally faces inherent limits.

It is worth noting that among the top ten retail websites in the UK, only Amazon and eBay also rank among the "top ten most visited websites by UK adults," a comprehensive list dominated by internet and media giants such as Google, Meta, BBC, and Microsoft. This phenomenon also reflects that, despite Temu's rapid rise in retail traffic rankings, there remains a structural gap in overall internet influence compared to top comprehensive platforms.

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