Temu <> Facebook Marketplace Arbitrage
Mini-side hustle, be the middle man.
Overview
There is a really interesting avenue I know someone been exploring lately, and been talking to them a lot about it.
Premise
The basic idea is you can first buy an item on Temu. With the item, you can post a video about it (such as a wagon) or something, where you can then, sell on Facebook Marketplace. See if there is enough interest, and if so, begin selling the item. (You don’t even need to buy the item, if you can find a realistic enough video online - I think for Facebook Marketplace people prefer to see the item).
You can tell tell them, “hey, I’m currently traveling, but you can come pick it up in 4 days (which is the Temu shipping time).” Can adjust if needbe. You can even direct ship it to them.
Markup percentage
He was able to successful mark up items at about 20% to 30% markup, so a 40 dollar item became a 50 dollar item.
In addition, if you combo this with other credit cards such as Citi Double Cash back, you can generate even more money! And comboing this even further you can potentially add on another 2% to 3.5% margin.
What happens if you don’t sell the item?
This is why keep a lower inventory first + keep the risk profile you have lower
If you really are unable to sell the items, return it to Temu.
Obviously there is some risk such as being flagged for return abuse, but this is the basic premise. Can even potentially wrap it in an Amex card for purchase protection. In essence it is like a mini-arbitrage opportunity due to information disparity. Temu is still not as rooted in the US as Amazon is, and there can be opportunities such as this to sell items as a side-hustle with Temu. Especially in the “lightning deal section” with Temu.
How much can you make?
The person I talked to was able to do about 30 items in 2 weeks, with about 10 dollar to 15 dollar margin. This can go potentially higher, but I think YMMV depending on your city density and where you are located.