Lessons from Temu, TikTok & Beyond: A Strategy Briefing on China’s E-Commerce Playbook

Temu, TikTok, and SHEIN are just the beginning. China’s e-commerce giants aren’t just transforming their own market — they’re coming for ours. With new playbooks built on real relationships, hyper-relevant content, and AI-driven discovery, they’re taking market share while most Western brands still fail to grasp what truly drives their success.

In this strategy briefing, Björn Ognibeni decodes China’s evolving commerce logic — from algorithmic trend-surfing to platforms still largely unknown in the West, like Xiaohongshu, where a new kind of social is generating more reach than advertising. The next wave of commerce is already here — and it’s more personal, more intelligent, and driven by playbooks the West hasn’t even opened.