In Kevin Zhang’s quiet, two-storey house in Gloucester, hundreds of parcels blanket the living room floor. Each package – shipped from China – is bound for British customers who placed orders on Temu, TikTok Shop and AliExpress.
Zhang, 49, moved to the United Kingdom from China’s rustbelt northeast in 2000, and spent years running a local nail salon. But in March, he sensed that something big was happening with China’s cross-border e-commerce platforms – and decided to make a change.
He transformed some unused space in his home into a pop-up warehouse, and began processing orders on behalf of Chinese exporters: handling, picking, packing, labelling and distributing packages across Britain for £1 (US$1.35) per parcel.
The business has quickly snowballed. After just a few months, the side hustle is already earning Zhang nearly £2,000 a month – on par with a typical graduate starting salary in London.
“Demand from Chinese exporters is so strong, I’ve had to start turning people away,” he told the Post.
Makeshift warehouses like Zhang’s are spreading across the UK, as Chinese immigrants cash in on the rapid expansion of China’s shopping platforms in the country.
Chinese e-commerce giants including Shein and Temu have launched a marketing blitz targeting the UK this year, with the platforms appearing to pivot to the European market as the US-China trade war makes selling to America more difficult.
The goods were originally bound for the US, but now they’re coming to the UK instead. The pound gives sellers a better margin
Eric He, ‘family warehouse’ operator
Sales in the UK have been rising so fast that Chinese exporters are struggling to keep up. On RedNote, a Chinese social platform, there are reams of posts from vendors looking for reliable British warehousing and distribution partners.
That has created an opening for grassroots operators like Zhang, who are referred to as “family warehouses” in Chinese. Online networks connecting Chinese exporters with UK-based family warehouses have quickly formed on the Chinese messaging app WeChat to manage the growing flow of orders.
Zhang set up his own WeChat group after launching his home warehouse, bringing in fellow Chinese immigrants and neighbours to share the workload. The group has already accumulated 258 members.
“We’ve built a network,” he said. “If someone goes on holiday, someone else steps in. That keeps our clients happy.”
The UK is particularly fertile ground for China’s shopping apps. Like America, it has a cost-of-living crisis that draws shoppers to the super-cheap deals on offer on Temu and Shein. But unlike America, Britain has so far remained open to trade with China.
In the US, the growth of apps like Shein and Temu was fuelled by the “de minimis” exemption – a kink in the tax code that allowed packages worth less than US$800 to enter the country tariff-free. But Washington is now phasing out the policy, meaning that parcels from China will face steep duties of more than 50 per cent.
Britain, meanwhile, has maintained its own version of the “de minimis” rule, which exempts packages with a customs value of up to £135 from all import duties, though value-added tax still implies. London has also not followed Washington in targeting Chinese imports with higher tariffs.
China’s e-commerce giants have been ramping up investment in Britain as a result. Shein increased its ad spend in the UK and France by 35 per cent in May, while Temu’s parent company PDD Group upped its spending by 40 per cent in France and 20 per cent in the UK, according to data from Sensor Tower.
The advertising push appears to have paid off, with Shein’s app downloads in the UK rising 25 per cent in May compared with the previous month and Temu’s more than doubling. TikTok, for its part, announced in early June that it would expand its UK operations, adding 500 new roles.
China’s cross-border e-commerce exports to the UK surged 65.8 per cent year on year in May, reaching US$481.6 million, according to Chinese customs data. Over the first five months of 2025, exports were up 44.1 per cent year on year.
Shein and Temu did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comment.
Demand for UK warehouse partners continues to rise among Chinese exporters, with more than 300 related posts appearing in a single day on RedNote in early June. Chinese residents in the UK are often seen as ideal collaborators – including 22-year-old student Eric He.
Six months ago, He received a message from a Chinese vendor asking if he would be willing to turn his student flat in central London into a warehouse. He agreed, and now earns around £600 per month from processing orders.
“The goods were originally bound for the US,” He said. “But now they’re coming to the UK instead. The pound gives sellers a better margin.”
In some cases, Chinese exporters actively prefer to work with family warehouses, as they offer lower costs – and, in some cases, quicker services – than traditional providers.
In the UK, standard warehousing services cost between £5.20 and £21 per pallet per month. Most Chinese-run home operations, by contrast, offer a first month of storage for free and then charge just £1 per order for full-service fulfillment – roughly one-third of commercial market rates.
“Our Chinese clients trust us more,” said He. “We’re cheaper and often faster than the big providers by at least one day.”
Temu, Shein, TikTok, they’ve all grown incredibly fast in the UK. More and more Chinese migrants are getting into this business
Emily Yin, e-commerce labelling worker
He knows the business violates the terms of his student visa, and he has not reported his income. “But the amount is small,” he said. “I’m not too worried.” After he graduates, he plans to apply for a post-study work visa and launch a registered warehousing business.
But for early entrants like Emily Yin, the flood of new family warehouse operators has come as an unwelcome shock. The 45-year-old started providing traditional labelling services in 2022, breaking down bulk shipments and preparing goods for Amazon’s warehouses. Back then, she earned £3 per order.
“Temu, Shein, TikTok, they’ve all grown incredibly fast in the UK,” she said. “More and more Chinese migrants are getting into this business. And now, sellers can ship individual items straight to overseas warehouses, so the demand for traditional re-labelling is falling.”
“Prices from China are now so competitive – it feels like the price war has come to the UK too,” Yin added. “My income is down to 30 to 40 per cent of what it used to be.”
Beijing, meanwhile, is doubling down on its support for the cross-border e-commerce sector. In its 2025 government work report, the Chinese government pledged to promote cross-border e-commerce, enhance international logistics networks, and help firms expand their overseas warehousing capacity.