A Succulent Seller Finds Fertile Ground on Temu’s Expanding Platform
By tapping Temu’s fast-growing marketplace, a California succulent business expanded its reach and brought its lush plants to a wider audience.
Jessica Janik-De Gennaro never expected her husband’s late-night Temu scrolling sessions to spark a business epiphany. But when the 43-year-old entrepreneur overheard him talking about the app’s good deals to friends, and saw her 10-year-old son mimicking Temu’s jingle, the founder of Shop Succulents realized her premium plants might have a future on the fast-growing shopping platform.
At the time, the succulent market was cooling off after its pandemic-era boom. According to a 2024 Garden Center report, indoor plant sales, including succulents, slowed from 8% in 2023 to 5% in 2024.
In February 2025, De Gennaro took a leap: listing her plants on Temu, the world’s second-largest e-commerce platform. Sales were almost instant. In just four months, she sold 3,500 items on Temu — nearly half of what she had sold on another e-commerce platform over the past decade, according to De Gennaro.
“The numbers were staggering. It’s the first platform in years where we saw real growth right away,” De Gennaro said. A year after launching on Temu, Shop Succulents has recorded more than 11,000 sales on the platform.
Since opening its platform to all U.S. sellers in November 2024, Temu has rapidly expanded its network of local merchants. With low upfront costs and access to millions of potential customers, sellers can tap into over 700 product categories, ranging from home decor to pantry staples.
From Bartender to Plant Boss
De Gennaro always knew she wanted to be her own boss. While bartending to pay for college, she helped grow a well-known restaurant company across multiple cities, managing large teams along the way.
After graduation, she spotted the rise of online retail and found her niche in succulents — a market that felt both fresh and full of potential. In 2012, she founded Shop Succulents and began shipping live plants across the country.
Selling live plants online isn’t easy. Unlike clothing or gadgets, plants are fragile and expensive to ship, all of which chip away at margins.
“We don’t sell cuttings. We ship fully rooted plants,” De Gennaro said. “And we want them to arrive looking clean and happy, not like a box of dirt. We joke that when we design a new box, we throw it like a football across the warehouse. If it survives that, it’s good to go.”
But even with a strong brand and loyal following, De Gennaro knew she needed a new channel to reach more customers and keep momentum going as the market shifted. That’s what led her to Temu — and a surprising second chapter for her business.
“Seeing our $20 succulents next to Temu’s bargain electronics was surreal,” she said. “But that’s the magic — the algorithm doesn’t discriminate. Our plants became ‘items to explore’ for people who never knew they wanted a spiky plant until it popped up between yoga pants and kitchenware.”
For De Gennaro, Temu’s low fees and straightforward onboarding process stood out, especially compared to other platforms where paying for visibility had become the norm. Shop Succulents was also able to access shipping rates through Temu’s partner logistics network that would have been difficult for a small business to secure independently, leaving more room in each sale for the extra care live plants require.
“Most marketplaces made visibility a pay-to-play game,” she said. “That’s hard to sustain in a low-margin category like plants. We already invest in sturdy packaging and careful handling — every detail adds to the cost. Paying extra just to be seen felt like a burden.”
“With Temu, it feels like we’re building something that can last.”
Prices and availability are accurate as of the time of publication and are subject to change without notice. Please check the retailer’s website for the most up-to-date pricing information.
