Shein’s impressions on Google Shopping ads in the U.S. have now dwindled to zero

Shein had a 0% share of daily U.S. Google Shopping ads impressions on April 26, according to information from the marketing performance agency Tinuiti. The news comes two weeks after Temu’s share on the channel cratered to zero, and shortly after Shein upped U.S. prices for everything from kitchen gadgets to toys. When contacted by Modern Retail, Shein did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

This was already somewhat in the works; Shein’s share of impressions in U.S. Google Shopping ads went from 20% on March 31 to 10% on April 15 to 0% on Saturday. “We did expect Shein to continue to fade in the auctions, and they did indeed finally shut ads off,” Andy Taylor, vp of research at Tinuiti, told Modern Retail.

The numbers suggest a timely change in both Shein’s and Temu’s U.S. ad strategies. For years, Shein and Temu — which largely sell ultra-cheap items sourced from China — have benefitted from de minimis, a loophole that allows packages worth under $800 to enter the country duty-free. That exemption goes away for mainland China and Hong Kong on May 2, under an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump. Going forward, Shein and Temu will need to spend significantly more money to ship packages to the U.S. — and it’s likely their advertising tactics have had to change, as a result.

On April 25, the day before Shein’s U.S. Google Shopping ad impressions dropped to zero, Shein upped prices in the U.S. by as much as 377%. Temu, too, pulled out of Google Shopping ads in the U.S. some two weeks before it started adding “import charges” of about 145% on goods coming from China. Temu’s share of U.S. Google Shopping ad impressions went from 19% on March 31 to 10% on April 9 to 0% on April 12.

When it comes to ad spend pullback, “it’s pretty clear that the tariffs are the driving force behind these moves by both companies,” Tinuiti’s Taylor said.

Google Shopping ads, as a whole, have been a “meaningful part” of both Temu’s and Shein’s ad strategies, Taylor said. Businesses have traditionally used Google Shopping ads to expand the visibility of their products, since results from Google Shopping ads appear before organic search results. Temu’s share of Google Shopping ads in the U.S. hit a high of 29% back in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Tinuiti data — around the same time that Temu embarked on a marketing blitz. Tinuiti does not have such data for Shein.

Advertising — in addition to ultra-low-cost goods like $2 scrunchies and $10 dresses — has been key to both Shein’s and Temu’s meteoric rise. JP Morgan estimated that Temu and Shein spent roughly $600 million and $200 million, respectively, on Facebook and Instagram ads during the third quarter of 2023. In October 2023, Meta finance chief Susan Li said the company had “benefited from spend among advertisers in China reaching customers in other markets.” Shein, which was founded in China but is now based in Singapore, was likely in that group.

Beyond this, Shein and Temu have fundamentally shifted the digital ad landscape. In November 2023, Etsy’s CEO declared that Temu and Shein were “almost single-handedly having an impact on the cost of advertising,” especially when it came to Google and Meta. And many companies, from Gap to Lulu’s Fashion Lounge Holdings, have called out Shein and Temu in earnings calls.

“CAC [customer acquisition cost] is a key variable, and the presence of Shein and Temu [has] made it a lot more expensive,” Juozas Kaziukėnas, then-CEO of Marketplace Pulse, previously told Modern Retail.