In order to help merchants manage inventory more efficiently, optimize cash flow, and adapt more quickly to changes in market demand, the Temu platform officially launched the pre-sale function on February 8.
Currently, the pre-sale function is only open to enterprise stores in Mainland China and Hong Kong. This new initiative undoubtedly provides new development opportunities for e-commerce sellers, while also presenting new operational challenges.
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Pre-sale Function: Enhancing Inventory Management and Sales Flexibility
As competition in the e-commerce market becomes increasingly fierce, inventory management and cash flow have always been core issues faced by sellers.
The pre-sale function launched by Temu provides sellers with an effective solution. Through pre-sale, sellers can understand market demand in advance, reduce inventory backlog, lower warehousing costs, and receive consumer payments in advance to improve cash flow.
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Pre-sale Operation Process and Conditions
First, sellers need to meet the platform's operational standards, including delayed shipment rate, late shipment rate, and order cancellation rate, which must not be higher than the industry average. Secondly, sellers can choose the top 10% of products with the highest sales in the past 30 days as pre-sale products.
The pre-sale period can be flexibly set between 3 and 7 days. When the restocking date arrives, the pre-sale will automatically end, and the remaining products will return to regular inventory.
In terms of inventory management, when a pre-sale product is sold out, the system will automatically switch to pre-sale status and prioritize the consumption of regular inventory to ensure that sellers do not face out-of-stock issues. The delivery evaluation period will also be extended accordingly based on the pre-sale days to ensure timely order shipment.
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Advantages of the Pre-sale Function
1. Reduce Inventory Pressure
Through pre-sale, sellers can understand market demand in advance, reduce excessive product inventory, and lower warehousing costs and the risk of unsalable goods.
2. Improve Cash Flow
Funds from pre-sale products can be recovered in advance, helping sellers improve cash flow and ensuring that production and procurement plans can proceed smoothly.
3. Quickly Respond to Market Demand
The pre-sale function allows sellers to flexibly adjust production and procurement plans based on consumers' pre-sale situations, ensuring sufficient inventory when products are officially shipped.
4. Attract Consumers
Pre-sale activities are usually accompanied by limited-time discounts or promotions such as full reductions, which can attract more consumers to purchase in advance, increasing conversion rates and brand loyalty.
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How to Enable the Pre-sale Function?
Sellers must first complete registration and pass qualification review on the Temu platform. After approval, they can enter the backend system to start creating pre-sale products. In this process, sellers need to set relevant parameters such as product price, inventory quantity, and delivery time, and upload detailed product information and images.
During the pre-sale period, sellers need to closely track order status, handle orders promptly, and coordinate with logistics companies to ensure that products can be shipped on time and delivered smoothly to customers.
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Comparison with Other Platforms
Temu's pre-sale function is somewhat different from the pre-sale models of other domestic e-commerce platforms (such as Taobao and JD.com). Although these platforms have long launched pre-sale functions, Temu pays more attention to inventory management and cash flow, especially for Chinese sellers, providing more localized services. Compared with foreign platforms, Temu has advantages in logistics and local warehousing, helping sellers better manage orders.
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Conclusion
The pre-sale function launched by Temu provides sellers with a new sales model. By reducing inventory pressure, improving cash flow, and quickly responding to market demand, it helps merchants improve operational efficiency.
However, sellers also need to pay attention to inventory and logistics management of pre-sale products, and avoid neglecting product quality and after-sales service due to over-reliance on pre-sale. Although pre-sale is a powerful sales tool, its value can only be maximized through careful planning and reasonable operation.