Shein: How Shein regenerated the world's shopping addiction

The beginnings, from reselling wedding dresses to ultra fast-fashion:

Shein was born in China, in 2008. Originally, the brand was devoted to re-selling wedding dresses sourced from the local wholesale market in Guangzhou to customers across the globe. Back then, Shein could be compared to a drop-shipping platform, its mission was to re-sale, neither to design nor to manufacture. 

Slowly, Shein shifted its business model and became a full-fledged retailer, and created their own designs. By 2020, the company had a revenue of $100 million and registered a 100% growth for the seventh consecutive year. 

The Secrets of Shein:

A few elements can be attributed to Shein’s global success, however, the brand’s social media strategy and SEO use were key parts of the success equation. 

Shein understood early on how to use social media to reach their target market, Gen Z and young millennials, using a well-crafted influencer strategy and user-generated content. 

Shein leverages their content across social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram by showcasing real customers wearing Shein’s clothing. The results speak for themselves, Shein is currently valued at more than Zara and H&M combined, a spectacular growth for a company that started its ascension by reselling dresses from the Guangzhou wholesale market. 

The use and mastery of SEO have also allowed Shein to rank high on search engines and attract organic traffic to their products. 

As Shein’s target market is made of Gen Z and young millennials, another aspect of its success relies on the Shein app experience. The Shein app is very user-friendly and incorporates elements of gamification, such as encouraging users to log in frequently with various incentives, discounts, etc. 

Shein is also striving to create a sense of community with the Shein X Designers Program, by allowing upcoming designers to design their collections on the Shein platform. 

Lastly, Shein’s algorithm spots upcoming trends over social media and reproduces them in a record time, to be sold on the platform, at a very affordable price.

Shein’s fulgurant financial success can be attributed to their disrupting business strategy. 

Yet, the main difference between fast-fashion and ultra-fast fashion models seems to be the greater power of consumers, whose needs and expectations matter for both design and production with ultra-fast fashion brands such as Shein. 

Shein: Avoid at all costs

Shein’s success is also due to its very low prices strategy, Shein’s average price for dresses is $15, against $48 for Zara. For only one article, the price is being divided by more than 3. With such prices, it’s no surprise that Gen-Z and young millennials turn away from traditional fast fashion brands. In essence, Shein offers cheap and trendy clothing available at the fingertip. 

Shein Pop-Up store in Paris, France

But what’s the downside? 

The brand has recently been in the news for greenwashing as part of its influencer’s trip to the Shein’s showcase factory. Influencers were made to believe garment workers worked in safe conditions, and a clean environment and were paid a living wage to perform their work. The reality states otherwise, Shein’s workers tend to work exhausting shifts, 18 hours a day to reach their daily quotas. The model behind such low prices reflects the workers’ conditions, the cheaper you pay for the garment, the cheaper they get paid. 

Moreover, with the model of insanely fast production, the timeframe between design and production is about 10 days, Shein can have 600,000 products listed on the platform at any time and adds about 300,000 new products per year. Per comparison, H&M releases about 4,500 new products every year. This simply means that it takes H&M about 67 years to release as many products as Shein does. 

For customers, Shein may mean cheaper and faster, but it doesn’t mean better in any way. The clothing is mostly made out of synthetic fabrics such as polyester and nylon, such fabrics take years to decompose, up to 200, even if you decide to get rid of it after wearing it 3 times. Moreover, Shein fabrics contain hazardous chemicals at levels of concern, about 32%, of their garments which can have a very negative impact on consumers’ health. 

Shein should be avoided at all costs and replaced by other available options. Instead of buying multiple pieces of clothing, let’s buy less and better, investing in our clothes is a way to be more attached to them, and build a long-lasting, timeless wardrobe.