From warehouse expansion in the UK to new roles in Spain and Italy, retailers say growing online orders are supporting investment, recruitment and career opportunities.
When Calum McHugh joined Leeds-based retailer Money Cruncher, he was expecting a temporary role. Eighteen months later, he is supervising a five-person dispatch team.
McHugh joined as the business was expanding its online sales. Money Cruncher began selling on Temu in early 2025 and says its warehouse workforce has since grown from seven employees to 28.
“When I started, I didn’t know how long it would last,” McHugh said. “Now I’m supervising a team and there’s a lot more responsibility.”
The retailer now dispatches more than 6,000 parcels a day. Its expansion has also created roles in marketplace operations and opportunities for existing employees to move into office-based positions.
“As soon as Temu came on board, sales took off,” McHugh said. “We needed more equipment, more storage, more people.”
Money Cruncher’s experience is part of a broader pattern among independent sellers across Europe. A Temu survey of 152 sellers across Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland and the UK found that half had increased capacity, hired additional staff or done both since joining the platform. One in three sellers operating in EU markets also said they had expanded into new international markets.
In the UK, Northamptonshire-based automotive retailer Blillov brought forward plans to expand its warehouse by around six months and is hiring five warehouse employees this summer, while London fragrance retailer Direct Beauty has grown from four employees in a 500 sq ft warehouse to a team of 12 in a 1,000 sq ft facility.
The trend extends beyond the UK. In Spain, automotive retailer Recamanía has added warehouse and administration roles as orders increased following the launch of its store.
Natalia Collado Castillo, 26, joined the warehouse team after hearing about the opportunity from a friend at the company. She said order volumes had grown so quickly after the store opened that the business needed additional support.
Her colleague Laura, also 26, joined the company full-time after completing an internship in administration and finance. She now generates picking lists for the warehouse and manages the online store.
Recamanía had been trading for more than 40 years but had previously struggled to establish a successful online sales channel. After opening its Temu store in March 2025, it began receiving around 4,000 orders a month through the platform, prompting the business to expand its warehouse and administrative teams.
“It is very positive because it means local businesses are growing and more jobs are being created in the area,” Natalia said.
In Italy, retailer Esplodia has similarly expanded alongside its online sales. The retail brand of Gruppo Terra SRL joined Temu in 2024 and now manages orders from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland.
The company has fulfilled more than 150,000 orders through Temu and says the platform now accounts for 30% of its total turnover across all channels. It has hired four additional employees and plans to recruit more, while a new 10,000-square-metre warehouse is being built to support the business.
The experiences of these businesses reflect some of the themes explored in the Temu Small Business Insights Report 2026, which looks at the complexity, cost and connection challenges facing smaller businesses as they grow online.
For McHugh, who grew up in Leeds and lives nearby, the expansion of a local business has significance beyond his own career progression.
“I know people who have struggled to find work,” he said. “When a business is growing and taking more people on, it’s a positive thing for the area.”
