What is Amazon Haul? Everything to know about Amazon's answer to Temu and Shein

What is Amazon Haul? Everything to know about Amazon's answer to Temu and Shein Amazon's version of the dollar store is hiding inside the app you already use

Grocery prices climbed again this year. So did rent, gas, and just about everything else, and it's changed who's willing to gamble on a $3 phone case from a company they've never heard of.

Shein and Temu used to be the kind of apps you kept hidden because they felt a little dirty. Now they're just how people shop.

Amazon watched that happen and did what Amazon does: built its own version and tucked it a few taps deep inside their app. It's called Amazon Haul, and there's a decent chance you've scrolled right past it.

What is Amazon Haul?

Haul was launched in 2024. It’s a separate discount storefront that lives inside the Amazon Shopping app and is now available on mobile and desktop. Everything on it costs $20 or less, and most of it is under $10. It runs on its own cart and checkout, completely apart from your regular Amazon order, so your bulk toilet paper subscription and your $4 tank top habit never have to meet.

Orders under $25 incur a flat $3.99 shipping fee, adding some incentive to fill the cart. You’ll also get 5% off orders over $50 and 10% off orders over $75. To find it, just search "Haul" in the Amazon app, tap the icon in the main menu, or go straight to the Haul homepage.

How it differs from a regular Amazon order

Prime membership doesn't get you perks here. A normal Prime order ships from a warehouse down the road and shows up in a day or two. A Haul order comes straight from the manufacturer, mostly out of China, so you're looking at one to two weeks before it’s on your porch.

Haul orders live entirely outside Prime's shipping perks, no matter what tier you're paying for. Cutting out domestic warehousing is how Amazon can sell a phone case for less than the price of a coffee.

What shoppers are actually finding

Much like shopping at TJ Maxx or Marshalls, the deals are a mixed bag, which makes sense for a marketplace built on rock-bottom prices.

Customers report real wins like a $6 phone stand that's held up for months, storage bins sturdy enough to stack with winter clothes, and decent kitchen equipment.

Then there are the misses. Cheap sunglasses that scratch by day two, a tote bag noticeably smaller than the listing photos, jewelry that tarnishes within a week of wear.

Some orders show up early, bundled in with a regular Prime shipment, while others sit in customs limbo for a stretch before landing right on the date Amazon quoted.

The most important part of the shopping experience is making sure to check the reviews and photos. While they’ve always mattered, they matter even more on Haul. Many Haul listings skip specs entirely and just let the price make the pitch. No risk, no rewards, right?

How Haul stacks up against Temu and Shein

Price: Independent research from Profitero found that Amazon's overall online prices were already running about 14% below competitors' in 2024, before Haul even existed. Still, item for item, Temu tends to undercut Amazon on Haul-style goods specifically. Omnisend's research put average Temu savings at 40%, with discounts as steep as 98% off list price, compared with a ceiling of roughly 67% off on Amazon.

Shipping speed: Haul ships in one to two weeks from overseas. Temu used to run on that same timeline until it shifted much of its US-bound inventory to domestic warehouses after the tariff changes, so it can now beat Haul on speed for anything it stocks locally, but that will only happen IF they have it in stock.

Returns: Haul's 15-day window comes with free returns on anything over $3 and drop-off at more than 8,000 locations, including Whole Foods, UPS, Kohl's, and Staples (items $3 and under are final sale, no exceptions, no arguing). Amazon's A-to-Z Guarantee also covers every purchase.

Temu advertises a longer 90-day window, but actually getting a return resolved often means a slower, murkier process through a third-party seller.

Variety: Temu and Shein simply carry more of everything, catalogs stretching into the millions of items. Haul counters with a curated "Brand Scores" section, real-name brands at 40-50% off, something Shein's comparable "All Brands" section can't fully match since brand authorization there varies by seller.

Where Haul shines

Tech accessories are the safest bet for savings. Phone cases, charging cables, stands, screen protectors- the kind of stuff where you're not chasing premium quality, just something that works and doesn't crumble in your hands.

Home odds and ends do well too, drawer organizers and closet storage especially, where "good enough" genuinely is good enough.

Beauty and fashion are more of a coin flip outside the Brand Scores section, since unbranded skincare and clothing sizing can damage your skin and self-image. Again, read the reviews, and let someone else be your guinea pig before you buy.

The Amazon trust factor

Every order runs through the same Amazon login, saved payment method, and checkout encryption as the rest of Amazon, and shows up in your normal order history instead of some separate account you have to babysit, so it's all consolidated in one place. In a recent Omnisend poll, 87% of shoppers said they trust Amazon, compared to just 5% who said the same about Temu. Amazon listings average around 50,000 reviews, versus roughly 1,500 on Temu. That's not a small gap. It’s a canyon.

Oddly, all that trust hasn't fully translated into people actually shopping there. That 76% of Americans still haven't shopped Haul in the past year, compared with more than half who'd bought from Temu and 40% from Shein.

Tariffs and de minimis: what could change pricing

The direct-from-overseas model that makes Haul, Temu, and Shein this cheap has been under real legal pressure. The federal "de minimis" rule used to let packages worth $800 or less enter the US duty-free — the loophole that made $3 items possible in the first place — was closed for goods from China and Hong Kong in May 2025, then for all other countries that August.

The fight over it isn't fully settled, either: the Supreme Court struck down a separate batch of China-specific tariffs this past February, but a federal trade court just upheld the de minimis suspension itself, and it's set to stay in place until Congress's own repeal takes effect in 2027. Today's Haul prices already have those costs baked in rather than hitting you as a surprise at checkout, and there's no real sign that changes anytime soon.

Is Amazon Haul worth it?

Haul earns its place when you want cheap, functional basics, don't mind a couple weeks of waiting, and would rather have Amazon's return policy and customer service backing you up.

It's a low-risk way to test out home goods, small electronics, and everyday essentials, especially if Temu or Shein's aggressive notifications and inconsistent quality have already burned you once.

Regular Amazon still wins when you actually need something fast, since Prime shipping isn't part of this equation at all, or when you're after something specific enough that Haul's smaller catalog probably won't carry. For everything else, the $4 phone case or $8 storage bin you don't need until next month, Haul is worth the wait.

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