For over twenty years, Amazon represented the reference point of theglobal e-commerce: a giant admired and feared, whose obsession with the customer redefined the expectations of service, speed and online reliability. The Ecosystem Prime, the unparalleled logistics, the vastness of the catalog and the ability to cradle the consumer to the point of making it almost dependent, seemed to form an impregnable fortress. Yet in recent years, the world speaking panorama has been undergoing a strong change.
From the east, in particular from Chinaa silent but unstoppable revolution has started: platforms like Temu, Shein and Aliexpress They have not limited themselves to growing, but they shattered old paradigms, also forcing the giant of Seattle – which also sells many Made in China products – to reconsider his certainties.
Aggressive prices and new purchasing experiences
The driving force of this Chinese “new wave” is founded primarily on costs. Temu, an app owned by PDD Holdings and active in Italy from the end of 2022, has chosen the policy of attack priceaiming for the rapid conquest of a huge slice of the public.
Through the elimination of the intermediary, the products are often put on sale with negligible figures: some categories, such as tech accessories, gadgets and household items, have become an Eldorado for occasions hunters. Aliexpressthe group marketplace of the group Alibabaadopts the same logic: the focus is not the direct sale, but the creation of a platform that connects millions of Chinese producers with customers in over 200 countries, breaking down the rates to a minimum thanks to a sophisticated digital and logistics infrastructure enhanced by agreements with local realities such as Italian post office.
Shein and Real-time fashion
If the price represents the primary key to reducing consumer resistance, the true innovative power of these platforms is in the way of conceiving the purchase experience. Shein He transformed the Fast Fashion into “Real-time fashion”: the identification of a social trend is translated, thanks to a hyper-technological supply chain, in a new garment sold online in a very short time, often a few days, against the months of the western brands.
Temu between social commerce and gamification
Limu, on the other hand, chases the logic of social commerce and of the gamificationwhere discount code, lotteries and treasure hunt are the psychological engine of navigation that becomes entertainment and daily rituals.
Not surprisingly, in 2024 Temu was themore downloaded shopping apps globally and in Italy he reached 17 million unique users by the end of the year (+37% compared to the previous year). The algorithms incessantly suggest “not to be missed” products, while influencer and micro-influencer weave a network of viral content that bring Chinese brands unknown to the social networks of millions of teenagers and young adults.
Amazon defends his model
The contrast between the two models is clear. Amazon It remains anchored to that based on massive investments in warehouses, distribution, cloud server and a promise of perfect deliveries. The focus is on the “impeccable convenience», The reassurance of always finding, quickly and without surprises, what we need, accompanied by rapid and decisive customer service.
Aliexpress and Temu, on the other hand, focus mainly on the efficiency of the digitized system, on the flexibility in the offer and on the scalability of the interactions, strengthened in the case of Aliexpress by the agreements with local logistics companies that led to the average delivery times at about 5 days.
Shein, the winning anomaly
Shein It is the real anomaly. Unlike competitors, it invests little in their own logistics (relying largely to subcontractors), but has a mastery of the unique production chain, which allows it to answer almost instantly to any small mutation of global demand, remaining constantly at the forefront in identifying and riding digital trends.
A strategy that paid: between 2024 and 2025 shein has been stably among the First five e-commerce players in Italy and Europe.
The Italian market
In Italy Amazon still remains widely dominant, also thanks to the scarcity of large local general players. It is estimated that the Seattle giant can now count on 35-36 million monthly users and a penetration greater than 65% among the adult population.
In 2024, its revenues in our country, according to ECDB, have passed i 27 billion dollarsleaving far back all direct competitors. However, erosion is started: according to the most recent reports of AGCOMAmazon started to record a decline in monthly users (-2.4%), with Temu that accelerates double-digit and Aliexpress that now guides the ranking of web traffic platforms in Italy in 2025, with beyond 43.5 million monthly visits.
Young people and digital shopping
The success of Aliexpress, in particular among young people, is impressive: a 2025 research indicates that the 30% of the Italian Z generation It makes at least one purchase per month on the platform, attracted by the variety and the “discovery” effect of singular products, often accompanied by video reviews and viral challenge.
The agreement with Italian post office In the field of logistics he is filling the historical gaps on shipments, helping to consolidate his popularity.
The investigations of the authorities
The boom of Chinese sites, however, attracted the interest of the authorities for the risks related to quality, safety and transparency. In 2025 the European Commission He started a formal investigation on Shein, which risks incurring heavy penalties for alleged violations in consumer protection.
Also theItalian antitrust The company for deceptive communications has fined 1 million. And Temeu recently has been accused of not respecting the obligations set out in Digital Services Act: an examination conducted with the “mystery shopping” technique has found a high probability that the European user embodies on Temu in non -compliant products, a lightness that could cost dear to the platform in terms of fines and reputation.
A challenge without exclusion of strokes
Will public regulators be able to guarantee both consumer protection and the survival of a healthy market? AND Amazon Will he be able to defend his leadership by founding everything on reliability and service, or will he have to chase on prices and social experience?
The challenge is open and without exclusion of shots. What is certain is that for the consumer the offer ofe-commerce It has never been so abundant. Meanwhile, the retail trade closes the shutters while our money end up in the pockets of Americans and Chinese.
