Shein, Temu and other e-commerce retailers are upending global air cargo industry

The rapid rise of fast-fashion e-commerce retailers such as Shein and Temu is upending the global air cargo industry, as they increasingly vie for limited air-cargo space to woo consumers with rapid delivery times, industry sources say.

Shein, PDD Group’s Temu and ByteDance’s TikTok Shop, which recently launched online shopping in the U.S., ship the majority of their products directly from factories in China to shoppers by air in individually addressed packages.

Shein and Temu together send almost 600,000 packages to the United States every day, according to a June 2023 report by the U.S. Congress, and their growing popularity is boosting air-freight