Since 2022, 30-year-old nutritionist Mariana Garfias Torres has been earning extra income by selling household items from the Mexican catalog company Betterware. She regularly shares Betterware's electronic catalog with close acquaintances, places orders for them, and earns both profits and sales commissions.
However, recently she has received many orders from Shein. Her customers send her screenshots of the products they see on the Shein app, and then she places an order.
Garfias Torres said, "Now Shein and Temu are placing more advertisements on social media, and I have found that they have launched more innovative and cheaper products than Betterware
As Chinese e-commerce platforms become increasingly popular in Mexico, some of the 3.1 million people engaged in catalog direct sales have already stocked up on products from these platforms. Bit á cora Social, a research center focused on society and business, estimates that currently 60% of catalog sellers in Mexico sell products from online platforms. Industry insiders say that by doing so, these sellers - mostly low-income or middle-income housewives over the age of 45 who frequently interact face-to-face with customers - inadvertently led to the slow decline of Mexican catalog sales companies.
Fernando Jim é nez Vel á zquez, former Director of Broadcasting and Content at Tupperware and former Financial Director of the Mexican Direct Selling Association (AMVD), stated that including Shein and Temu products on the direct selling list is "definitely something that direct selling companies have been seeking to offset or contain".
Many sellers who frequently share catalogs through WhatsApp and Facebook now attach photos of Temu and Shein products. There is a group on Facebook with 149 members promoting products from Betterware, Tupperware, Shein, and Temu. Potential customers browse applications or PDF catalogs, take screenshots of their favorite products, and send them to the seller via WhatsApp while making a down payment. After about 20 days, they will receive the goods personally delivered by the catalog seller and then pay the remaining balance.
According to a study by the Mexican Association of Online Sales (AMVO), some people are afraid to shop online due to the fear of being scammed. To alleviate these concerns, Mexicans often purchase goods through intermediaries such as catalog sellers, and they establish trust relationships with these intermediaries through regular face-to-face interactions.
Lizbeth S á nchez works as an office secretary in Mexico State and began purchasing and reselling Shein products to colleagues in 2022. Afterwards, I created a Facebook page to reach more people. As the business grew, she added two catalogs, namely Betterware and Concord, a bedding and home decor company.
Mar í a del Pilar Montero, a senior researcher at Bit á cora Social, stated that women like Sanchez are "promoting the practicality of shopping to those who cannot or do not want to shop online.
According to data from application analysis company Data.ai, Shein and similar apps Temu have consistently ranked among the top three most downloaded shopping apps in Mexico over the past year.
The catalog sales or direct sales business model, where individuals purchase products from the parent company and sell them directly to consumers, was first adopted by companies such as Mary Kay, Tupperware, and Betterware in the United States and the United Kingdom. In Mexico, the most popular brands include Andrea, Price Shoes and Natura, the latter is a Brazilian beauty and perfume giant, and owns Avon.
Most catalog salespeople are housewives or have full-time jobs, and they choose this job because it brings them flexibility. But many people complain that it takes a long time to pick up goods from the warehouse, deliver them to customers, and receive cash payments.
Guadalupe Bucio, a 56 year old housewife and catalog salesperson from Puebla, said she usually spends three days a week collecting payments from customers and going to the warehouse to pick up the goods. She personally delivers the goods, and sometimes it takes at least 15 minutes to come to her doorstep because her clients are either busy or want to chat.
By selling products online, they can use delivery services, saving them time-consuming personal visits.
With Shein, these women can place orders anytime, use the payment methods they want, and have faster delivery options, "said Erick Padilla, founder and CEO of Aida, a sales assistant that provides WhatsApp sales services for online sellers
We noticed that our regular sellers started buying from Shein and Temu, selling products that were countless times cheaper, and then reselling them
Padilla's company serves approximately 160 catalog sellers in Mexico City and neighboring states who have included Shein products in their inventory. Aida provides personalized payment links for each customer so that they can make full or installment payments using credit or debit cards, bank transfers, or cash deposits. These links are sent via WhatsApp, so sellers do not need to visit in person and improve payment efficiency.
Four industry executives stated that while Shein and Temu's sales approach has improved the efficiency of some catalog salespeople, it has also had an impact on the catalog sales industry.
For twenty years, Daniel Boymar has been leading Cat á logo Inc ó gnita, a catalog company that sells shoes, clothes, and household items. Inc ó gnita's sales have been growing at a double-digit rate year by year, but in 2022, when Temu entered the country and Shein's popularity soared, he began to struggle to find salespeople for the company's products.
We have noticed that sellers typically start purchasing products from Shein and Temu, and then resell them. The prices of these two companies' products are much cheaper, "Bojmal said. In the community where Bojmal's clients reside, small storefronts selling these company products have begun to emerge. These women gave up Bojmal's PDF and print catalogs and started focusing on purchasing on Shein and Temu's applications.
By the end of 2023, Bojmal's sales have decreased by 30%. We have to make a decision to close, otherwise our financial situation will be greatly discounted, "he said.
Another directory company called Aditivo will cut its directory business by over 90% in 2023, largely due to its inability to compete with Shein or Temu's prices, "said Edmond Charabati, the company's Chief Operating Officer.
Although directory company owners face competition from online platforms, sellers claim that they are only responding to customers' constantly changing preferences. I still sell a lot of Betterware products to old customers, but young customers want Shein and Temu, "Garfias Torres said. Betterware has about 50 items, but Shein's inventory seems to never run out