Building an App Like Temu- Development Cost & Must-Have Features
February 24, 2025
The online business market is growing tremendously every year, with annual global e-commerce sales expected to increase by up to $3 billion from 2022 to 2028. This growth in eCommerce revenue shows a significant change in customer behavior toward the digital shopping sector. Though many online retailers are quite successful in today’s competitive era, Temu is one of the renowned online marketplaces, with more than 400 million monthly users, as recorded by Semrush in 2023.
Temu is an eCommerce app that offers everything like fashion, home décor, beauty, clothing, shoes, and more, which helps attract a wide group of users worldwide. Many aspiring businesses and entrepreneurs are planning to enter the e-commerce world with plans to build an app like Temu. In this blog, we will discover the key features and the cost to develop an app like Temu that will offer insights into e-commerce app development.
What is Temu & its Must-Have Features?
Temu can be defined as an online shopping application that enables sellers in China to sell and ship goods and services right to the customers without requiring any help in between. With the app slogan that says “shop like a billionaire”, Temu has successfully integrated the art of gamification and reward systems to turn the online shopping experience into a new level. By investing in an app similar to Temu, you can unlock immense opportunities if you are looking for innovative ways to enhance exposure or need a chance to connect with different customer groups.
Some of the main features of the Temu app are as follows-
- Registration and login for a seamless onboarding experience
- Product listing with detailed product descriptions and product images with transparent pricing
- A shopping cart helps shoppers to browse products and add them to the cart, ensuring a smooth shopping experience.
- Real-time bidding capability helps in adding a dynamic element to the app, which boosts customer engagement.
- Payment gateway integration helps in making payments securely and with ease, encouraging more spending.
- Easy order management helps to promote better transparency in the delivery of products, making customers more loyal.
Understanding The Development Cost of an App Like Temu
Building an app similar to Temu in today’s competitive market can take some effort as well as cost, but it will yield amazing business outcomes over time if you develop the app with the right app development company. If you are wondering how much it cost to create an app like Temu, you have come to the right place, as we will discuss the costs based on different development phases.
Finding out the exact development cost is not possible as the cost depends on several factors like app complexity, features, and technology needs. Usually, the app development cost ranges from $50k to $200k. Here are the factors that contribute to the app development cost-
- Research and Planning
Here, the team conducts thorough research to learn about the project requirements, know the target audience, and analyze the latest market trends. The planning phase may take around $1k to $12k. In-depth research and planning are essential as they help make the app successful.
- UI/UX Design of App
Designing a user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) is important to make the app visually appealing and attract new customers. This process typically requires a huge amount of time, and the course may come around $5k to $30k. However, this investment is important to deliver a seamless and captivating user journey in the long run.
- App Development
This is where the coding part begins, i.e., the development of the app’s functionality. For instance, building an eCommerce app may take around $20k to $80k or even higher, depending on the functionalities you add. Some of the common features are the product catalog, shopping cart, user authentication, etc.
- Testing and QA
Another crucial part of the development process is testing the app to figure out any potential issues or bugs before making the app available to customers. This helps ensure that the app works reliably and enhances customer experience. The cost of testing an app like Temu can come around $5k to $10k.
- APIs Integration
If you want your app to be successful, you need to integrate third-party APIs like payment gateways to enhance its functionality. However, the integration of API can add up to the cost from $2000 to $4000. However, the seamless integration of APIs is essential to promote secure transactions within the app.
- Backend Development
Another important part is the backend development, i.e., the creation of server-side logic, databases, and APIs, which are important to enhance the app functionality. The development cost for this process ranges between $10k and $25k.
- Launch & Deployment
After development, some steps must be taken to ensure that the app is deployed and launched properly. The app development cost for this process is around $1k to $2k. The successful launch of the app is crucial to gain the attention of new customers and collect positive reviews.
- App Maintenance
Another aspect that keeps the app relevant and successful in the long run is the ongoing maintenance and regular updates, which are important to meet evolving customer expectations. The cost of the maintenance effort depends on specific needs.
Final Thoughts
In the end, we will agree that the eCommerce market will continue to thrive in coming years, which means there will be lots of growth opportunities for new business startups in this sector. The best thing about online marketplaces like Temu is that they act as a bridge between sellers in China and global buyers, showcasing the power of social commerce and gamification in their business models.
Whether you want to redefine the e-commerce industry with a new app idea or update an existing one, Clavax is the right choice that can offer you the best app development services at an affordable app development cost in Australia! With a team of dedicated app developers, we excel in building innovative apps similar to Temu, aligned with a wide range of features to outshine in the e-commerce world. Connect with our developers to build an award-winning app like Temu.