Hands-on with Amazon Haul: First impressions of the e-commerce giant’s new Temu and Shein rival

A week or more to get a bunch of stuff I don’t really need? Sign me up!

With the debut of Amazon Haul in beta form this week, we’re finally getting a glimpse of the company’s long-awaited response to Temu and Shein, the discount e-commerce platforms for the TikTok generation that have turned online shopping into something that feels more like playing a game.

Everything is less than $20 (much less, for the most part) and items arrive in one to two weeks, going completely against the grain of the company’s larger push for faster and faster shipping times.

From a business perspective, it’s a sector that the Seattle-based e-commerce giant could no longer ignore. With Temu’s U.S. e-commerce market share projected by eMarketer to grow from 0.7% this year to 2.3% next year, Haul seems like an obligatory experiment for Amazon, at least, and maybe a critical long-term move.

For now, Amazon Haul is mobile-only. The best way to access it, in my experience, is to search for “Haul” in the search bar in the Amazon app. It’s filled with the tricks of the trade from this e-commerce genre, with playful language encouraging you to fill up your cart to get free shipping, and more nudging after that to get additional discounts.

As a member of Generation X, I’m probably not in the target demographic. (OK, definitely not.) I’ve glanced at Shein and Temu in the past, never actually ordered. I’m not a regular TikTok user, let alone an aficionado of TikTok Shop.

That said, I’m a longtime Amazon customer and Prime subscriber, like much of the U.S. population, so maybe I’m representative of the company’s opportunity to introduce these concepts to its larger customer base.

Here are my off-the-cuff thoughts after my first Amazon Haul experience.

This is a lot of crap. Scrolling down the list of items such as $4.99 wrist straps for weightlifting, $4.99 silicon dish drying mats, $2.73 oval shoelaces for sneakers, and $2.99 decorative outdoor solid throw pillow covers, it felt like rooting through abandoned items in the back of a warehouse — which might not be that far off, come to think of it.

My cart had lots of “lonely vibes” for a while while I tried to identify enough items that I would actually use to reach the $25 minimum needed to qualify for free shipping.

I ended up using the search bar to find items such as a $1.99 six-pack of adjustable cable organizers, an $8.79 pair of mesh zipper pouches for office supplies, a $3.99 desktop cell phone stand, a $6.99 small screwdriver set, and a a $5.99 electronic cable organizer and accessories carrying case.

Yes, that was quite a haul! OK, I’ll admit I’m not immune to the dopamine that comes from treating shopping as entertainment. Looking at my cart, I was starting to see the appeal. My subtotal for was $27.75, and the grand total after tax was $30.62, with a promise to arrive sometime between Nov. 21 and Nov. 25.

I can’t remember buying five different items for $30 and change on Amazon in the past. And it’s kinda fun to know that I’ve got various products arriving in a week or so, and I’ll probably forget exactly what I ordered in the meantime, promising to make the experience of getting the package more along the lines of receiving a surprise from myself.

With no small amount of guilt about the implications of modern consumerism, and recognizing my contribution to the demise of humanity, I could envision making a monthly (or weekly?) Amazon Haul order if the browsing experience was more tailored to me, and it wasn’t so difficult to find items that I would actually want to buy.

Which leads to my last big takeaway …

Amazon Haul isn’t yet leveraging the company’s biggest strengths. The beta of Amazon Haul is largely disconnected from the existing Amazon shopping experience, as of now. The company clearly isn’t using what it knows about me and my buying/browsing history to target items to me that I’d be more inclined to like.

From the outside, given all of the company’s expertise in e-commerce, this seems like a trivial enhancement to make, and one that could dramatically change not only the experience of using Amazon Haul but also the volume of orders.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to trying out that cell phone stand and adjustable cable orders in the next week or so. I’ll post an update about the receiving experience after I get my first Amazon Haul.