Manufacturers and wholesalers are turning to online marketplaces to sell directly to consumers, many for the first time. A 2025 Dynamicweb report found that 79% of companies that primarily sell to other businesses now sell direct to consumers, up from 66% a year earlier. The shift is being driven by wholesalers looking to find new sales outlets as consolidation in the sector led to fewer customers and large retailers cut into profits for smaller suppliers.
Temu's local seller program, which now operates in more than 30 markets, gives manufacturers and wholesalers a way to reach consumers. Local businesses in countries from the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan can list products and sell to consumers in their home countries through the platform. Temu is one of the most downloaded apps and most visited shopping websites in the world, attracting shoppers across 700+ categories including bedding, household essentials, and specialty food. Temu also won a Gold Stevie® Award for its Local Seller Program earlier this year.
UK manufacturer: daily online sales hit £10,000 within weeks of joining Temu
UK-based paper products manufacturer Nova Tissue sold out the toilet paper and kitchen rolls it had prepared for Temu just half a day after the listing went up on the platform. Within weeks, daily sales surpassed £10,000 and several products became UK bestsellers.
The performance on Temu was unlike anything the company had seen in six years on other e-commerce platforms. Before Temu, online revenue had plateaued at 7% of its £14 million annual turnover.
Nova Tissue added online sales to its business years ago as it saw its wholesale customer base contracting from roughly 200 customers to about 30. Smaller retailers closed and larger ones consolidated. The remaining buyers, including at least one major UK supermarket, used their increased bargaining power to demand better prices and impose tighter terms. Nova Tissue was making the same product, running the same machines, but negotiating from a weaker position every year.
"Our traditional sales channels were under attack," said Khurram Iqbal, Nova Tissue's owner.
The company had listed on various marketplaces. But those platforms rotated account managers every few months, meaning Nova Tissue had to constantly deal with fresh faces who were unfamiliar with their business. That is if they could get a person on the line. Most times, getting answers and issues dealt with meant navigating support systems that returned automated replies.
Temu was different. Unlike other platforms, Temu offered brand protection to Nova Tissue, blocking third-party resellers from listing the company's products. Since joining Temu, Nova Tissue has expanded its dispatch and customer service teams, and expects online sales to double this year.
From wholesale-only to direct seller: listed on Temu within one week, with no prior direct-to-consumer experience
Manchester-based bedding supplier Rose Empire had never sold a single product directly to a consumer before joining Temu.
For more than a decade, the business operated exclusively as a wholesaler, supplying products to distributors from a physical store on Derby Street. The margins earned by these big distributors prompted the business to seek ways to sell direct to consumers. Rose Empire tried other online platforms but getting started was complicated, support was thin, and technical issues piled up.
Rose Empire registered and listed its first product on Temu within a week, with direct support from the platform's merchant service team. A Temu representative had approached the company.
Like Nova Tissue, sales for Rose Empire took off and the company was able to refine its offerings with the help of dedicated account managers, unlike the limited support they had encountered on other platforms.
"For someone like us, starting from scratch selling directly to consumers, that made all the difference," a Rose Empire representative said of the platform's hands-on merchant support. After more than a decade as a pure wholesaler, it finally has a retail channel that works.
New York wholesaler: daily orders grew from fewer than 20 to nearly 500 on Temu
New York-based Felicific Inc., which trades under the brand 52USA, was a pure wholesale operation before Temu. It supplied Amazon and Walmart with pallets of Himalayan salt and rooibos tea in bulk. Its own website managed just 10 to 20 consumer sales a day.
Felicific joined Temu to reach consumers it had never been able to reach previously. The numbers moved fast, with daily orders approaching 500 from its launch in early 2025. The increased orders required a restructuring of warehouse workflows; staff had to be retrained. The company is hiring across New York and California to handle the increased business.
Felicific's bestsellers on Temu include collagen drinks, mineral-rich salts, and global seasonings. The company sources Himalayan salt from Pakistan, rooibos from South Africa, and spices from Sri Lanka, and sells exclusively to U.S. consumers in ready-to-use formats.
"We were used to forklifts and pallets," said Vigil Junior Kevin, a Felicific project manager.
"Temu gave us the push to modernize and the runway to grow."
Kevin said the platform's search algorithm surfaces products to shoppers organically, without relying on paid advertising. "Temu doesn't rely heavily on paid ads, which levels the playing field," he said. "Strong items get discovered organically."
Spanish honey producer: Temu accounts for 70% of online sales, with 18 daily shipments
Fernando Camacho keeps 500 beehives in the Sierra del Segura mountains of southeastern Spain. His small five-person operation, Oro de Yeste, produces 5,000 to 6,000 kilos of honey a year from bees foraging on wild rosemary, thyme, and lavender. The product has earned recognition from Spain's Beekeeping Quality Society.
Before selling online, the business grew slowly, and Camacho had to drive to local markets, trade fairs, and distributor meetings. He had looked at other online platforms, but opaque fees made it hard to know what a month's work would actually yield.
Camacho opened a Temu store about 18 months ago, which accounts for roughly 70% of his online sales today. He ships around 18 Temu orders a day through Correos Express, which collects directly from his premises.
Since joining Temu, he has shipped 1,000 orders to customers across Spain, something that wouldn't have been possible for a five-person operation managing the logistics alone, said Camacho. He now gets to spend more time with his bees instead of being on the road to sell his honey.
Oro de Yeste is among the growing number of traditional businesses in Spain that are embracing online sales and seeing growth after moving online. According to Spain's National Institute of Statistics, 26.6% of Spanish SMEs made e-commerce sales in 2024, up from 17.6% a decade earlier.
What Temu's local seller program offers manufacturers, wholesalers and traditional businesses
For manufacturers and wholesalers, online marketplaces like Temu have opened a cost-effective, high-traffic channel to reach consumers directly for the first time. Traditional businesses with limited or no online presence have also benefited by joining platforms like Temu, which offer dedicated account managers to help them navigate online selling.
"Temu didn't just open a new channel," said Kevin at Felicific. "It challenged us to rethink how we operate and gave us a chance to grow."
