Shein is one of the best places to buy fast fashion in the world. This $15 billion company is based in China, but it ships to more than 220 countries and territories from all over the world. Shein focuses on clothes and accessories for women, but the site also has some kids’ clothes, men’s clothes, home decor, and other things. There are even clothes and accessories for dogs and cats on the site. Gen Z and young Millennials are especially fond of Shein. This is probably because pieces from Shein often go viral on social media when influencers and content creators share them.
“Everyone can enjoy the beauty of fashion” is the motto of the company. This motto really comes to life because the company has thousands of low-cost styles to choose from. Because Shein has low prices and ships all over the world, fashion is truly available to everyone.
How they cut waste
To cut down on waste, only 50 to 100 of each style that Shein sells are made. This is done to avoid having too much stock on hand, which helps keep prices low and keeps pieces that weren’t bought out of the trash. How does Shein work?
Shein’s online store is pretty much the same as any other online store. People can look through the products by collections, styles, categories, and more. The platform has a search engine, so if you’re looking for a specific product, you can type it into the search bar and get relevant results.
Shein’s history
Chris Xu started Shein in 2008 with the goal of making fashion available to everyone. Its main office is in Guangzhou, China, and it works with businesses all over the world to help them reach their goals. In the beginning, JAFCO Asia, IDG Capital, and Greenwood’s Asset Management were the main investors in Shein. At first, products were made in China, but now Shein works with a lot of partners in unknown places to keep costs down.
Shein’s online marketplace can be used on both a computer and a phone. One impressive thing about this online store is that it went from having 500,000 visitors a month to having over 4,000,000 visitors a month in just six months. Shein has grown a lot in the last year. During the last week of September 2020, Shein’s iPhone app was the most downloaded app in the world.
How does Shein make so much money?
It is thought that Shein makes about $10 billion in sales each year.
5 Shein is one of the most successful B2C fast fashion companies in the world, so this is a pretty big deal. Let’s take a look at Shein’s business model and marketing plans to see how they’ve been so successful.
Business model
Shein is a global company that ships to 220 countries and has eight main markets it serves. Shein has had to get strategic in order to grow to this size while keeping costs low. Shein uses an online sales model that has storefronts for both mobile and desktop devices. When a company uses an eCommerce business model, it can save money because it doesn’t have to pay for the costs of keeping a storefront open.
Shein hires other companies to do some of its work to keep costs down. Shein, on the other hand, keeps a close eye on everything their partners do to make sure everything is up to brand standards. We’d like to point out that the company doesn’t say who its partners are or where they are located.
Marketing strategy
Shein’s marketing strategy includes both paid and unpaid campaigns. The company uses targeted ads on a lot of websites and social media sites. Thanks to Shein’s clever targeted ads, shoppers who go to their website will see products they have already looked at on different platforms. It almost seems like the products follow them around the internet no matter where they go.
Social media is a big part of how Shein markets itself. On its official Instagram and Facebook pages, Shein has more than 20 million fans. Shein uses social media, but they also have a number of affiliate programmes that let them use influencer marketing. 6 With their affiliate programmes, influencers can get a 10–20% cut of sales that come from their links. This makes influencers more likely to talk about Shein, which helps the brand get more customers and followers.
Social responsibility statement
A lot of fast fashion companies have been caught using unethical ways to make their clothes, especially in how they treat their factory workers. People wonder how they can stay in business when many of their clothes are only a few dollars each and they don’t cut corners. Shein is aware of these ideas about the fast fashion business, and their social responsibility statement makes it clear where they stand as a company. 7 In their statement, they say that they are committed to “fair labour practises, reducing their effects on the environment, and giving back to good causes.” “
To back up these promises, they do things like pay all employees and factory workers enough to live on, keep an eye on factory conditions to make sure they are safe, ban child and forced labour, and use environmentally friendly practises where they can.
Conclusion
A network of more than 3,000 wholesalers forms the basis of the company’s supply chain, which has been established in Guangzhou. As of the year 2022, Shein, which is headquartered in China and ships to more than 150 countries, is the most successful apparel merchant in the world. After a financing round in April 2022, the company’s worth was estimated at $100 billion at that time.
