The Invisible FunnelIndependent research on how agents research, compare and choose on behalf of customers

Brands

Temu logo

Temu

The agent never even considered Temu.

In four journeys Temu was not among the options the agent weighed and its site was never requested; no retailer was recommended.

Open-market search Five kitchen containers, delivery time and returns required · tested 2026-09-20

4 customer-agent journeys

Decision trace (one journey)

with memoryno readable brand-owned pagerefused by walmart.comobserved2026-09-20
  1. 1Customer missionTemu decision — same customer with relevant memory
    • set of five matching containers with lids
    • each container 1-2 litres (glass or BPA-free plastic)
    • delivered total at most the customer's budget ceiling
    • delivery within 8 days, as stated on retailer's own pages
    Remembers: “A 2025 order from a discount marketplace arrived after 26 days, and the refund for a wrong item took six weeks and three”
  2. 2Evidence16 searches, 8 pages: amazon.com, walmart.com, target.com
  3. 3BeliefNothing established about the brand
  4. 4DecisionNever entered the comparisonNONEAfter 24 page/search actions, no offer could be confirmed against all required facts using the retailer's own pages. Walmart.com and Amazon.com blocked every direct page …
run-f79d1c2fOpen decision trace →

Why Temu was not selected

  • Action budget ran out before the brand2/4
  • Never entered the comparison2/4

One label per journey, from the record. By recorded outcome: never entered the comparison 2 · ran out of page reads before deciding 2.

Same task, different memory

0/2selected, no memory
0/2selected, with memory
0 ppdifference

Memory did not change the outcome in these journeys; see what it changed on the Memory page.

Journeys without a readable brand-owned page

4 of 4

All journeys ran on 2026-09-20; a time series needs more than one day of testing.
Selection by day

0 of 4

All journeys ran on 2026-09-20; a time series needs more than one day of testing.

Where its facts came from

0

decisive beliefs about Temu taken from a page that is not the brand’s own, or from a brand page that refused the agent; 0 journeys met a bot wall on the brand site.

What this does not establish: that Temu generally wins or loses customers this way, or that changing one page would change these decisions. It establishes what happened in these 4 journeys.

The numbers

4journeys
0considered
0selected
0not selected
0/4reached a readable Temu page
Action budget ran out before the brandmost common reason not selected · 2/4

4 customer-agent journeys. Temu entered consideration in 0. It was selected in 0 and not selected in 0. In 4, no readable Temu-owned page was reached.

View strongest trace → Open story and traces →

What remains unresolved

  • Action budget ran out before the brand: 2 of 4 journeys
  • Never entered the comparison: 2 of 4 journeys

What could be tested

The same customer missions, run again with the open condition readable on Temu’s own pages, against these 4 journeys as the baseline. That is a comparison, not a guess: same customer, same requirements, one change.

Work at Temu?

Send us the source the agent couldn’t find. We’ll rerun the same customer and publish the before/after. Send the source

Decisions

All journeys

with memoryno readable brand-owned pageobserved2026-09-20
  1. 1Customer missionTemu decision — same customer with relevant memory
    • delivered total for the set of five ≤ $45 USD, as stated by the retailer
    • delivery within 8 days of ordering, as promised on the retailer's own pages
    • return window of at least 30 days, as stated by the retailer
    • refund paid within 10 days of return receipt, as stated by the retailer (preference)
    Remembers: “A 2025 order from a discount marketplace arrived after 26 days, and the refund for a wrong item took six weeks and three”
  2. 2Evidence13 searches, 11 pages: walmart.com, target.com, help.target.com, amazon.com
  3. 3BeliefNothing established about the brand
  4. 4DecisionNever entered the comparisonNONEThe best physical match found was the NutriChef 5-Piece Superior Glass Food Storage Containers Set sold via Target.com's Target Plus marketplace: all five containers are …
run-6732da0cOpen decision trace →
no memoryno readable brand-owned pagerefused by walmart.comobserved2026-09-20
  1. 1Customer missionTemu decision — customer with no relevant memory
  2. 2Evidence17 searches, 6 pages: walmart.com, target.com, amazon.com
  3. 3BeliefNothing established about the brand
  4. 4DecisionRan out of page reads before decidingNo decision: the action budget ran out after 6 page reads, before a readable Temu page.
run-316ea097Open decision trace →
with memoryno readable brand-owned pagerefused by walmart.comobserved2026-09-20
  1. 1Customer missionTemu decision — same customer with relevant memory
    • set of five matching containers with lids
    • each container 1-2 litres (glass or BPA-free plastic)
    • delivered total at most the customer's budget ceiling
    • delivery within 8 days, as stated on retailer's own pages
    Remembers: “A 2025 order from a discount marketplace arrived after 26 days, and the refund for a wrong item took six weeks and three”
  2. 2Evidence16 searches, 8 pages: amazon.com, walmart.com, target.com
  3. 3BeliefNothing established about the brand
  4. 4DecisionNever entered the comparisonNONEAfter 24 page/search actions, no offer could be confirmed against all required facts using the retailer's own pages. Walmart.com and Amazon.com blocked every direct page …
run-f79d1c2fOpen decision trace →
no memoryno readable brand-owned pagerefused by walmart.com, crateandbarrel.comobserved2026-09-20
  1. 1Customer missionTemu decision — customer with no relevant memory
  2. 2Evidence11 searches, 13 pages: amazon.com, wayfair.com, walmart.com, target.com +4
  3. 3BeliefNothing established about the brand
  4. 4DecisionRan out of page reads before decidingNo decision: the action budget ran out after 13 page reads, before a readable Temu page.
run-1e2b56d8Open decision trace →