H&M, Zara or Primark? All fashion from yesterday. Shein is the name of the new star in the fashion firmament: ultra-fast fashion is overtaking them all. What does the Chinese textile giant do differently than the competition?
If you’re looking for pants for eight euros, a shirt for three euros or wedding dresses for twenty euros, you’ve come to the right place at Shein. The Chinese textile giant produces so-called “Ultra Fast Fashion” – a business model in which the collections are designed quickly and in line with trends and are produced and sold at extremely low prices. Purchases are made via an app, with which customers reveal their data and their purchasing behavior. The company now ships directly from China to 165 countries without intermediaries, which is part of the price model.
production in real time
A secret of success: The very close interaction with the customers. Shein throws more than 1000 new parts on his site every day – initially only pictures. Thanks to the buyer’s app data, however, the online retailer knows exactly which parts are clicked on and are then in fashion. Shein can then immediately produce a large number of them.
The German competitor Zalando, for example, does not manage this, let alone retailers like H&M and Zara, who also operate stationary trade. The processes there are too slow to react to the ever faster turning fashion trends. A tough business model, says Jörg Funder, retail expert at Worms University. Because through this interaction with its users, the Chinese producer is in a very good position to identify trends at an early stage. Production only begins when there is a certain demand. As a result, the company does not need any storage space, the parts produced are sent directly.
Influencer Marketing
Another Shein recipe for success is micro-influencers. You have a maximum of 100,000 followers. Shein works with these instead of relying on well-known models or millions of influencers, because the very young target group sits at TikTok. No fashion brand is currently receiving so much attention here. So-called “Shein-Hauls” – videos in which fashion fans unpack their purchases and try them on – are almost always a guarantee of success: order, wear, photograph, post. Then the piece can often go.
throwaway fashion too dump prices
And so the Chinese online shop floods the world with cheap goods that hardly survive more than two washes. Sustainable looks different. Even if everyone knows it: Shein continues to grow undeterred. According to Statista, their app will have 74.7 million users in 2022 and generated sales of the equivalent of 30 billion US dollars with these users. Compared to the previous year, sales have almost doubled and have increased tenfold since 2019.
Now Shein wants to attack Amazon and run a similar concept: In addition to fashion and beauty, household appliances such as portable washing machines, smart home products such as remote-controlled lighting and DIY products such as fittings and wallpaper should also be available there. Expert Funder sees great opportunities for this: “Amazon still dominates the western world, Shein the Asian market. However, due to the unbeatable prices, that could well change.” One thing is certain for Funder: Shein will continue to grow in Europe and the USA.
Week-long delivery times
The only downside for customers is the long delivery times from China. The packages are on the way for up to four weeks.
A study by Greenpeace, which confirms that awareness of a more sustainable approach to fashion is growing, is encouraging. On average, every German owned 87 pieces of clothing in 2022, eight fewer than in 2015. In absolute numbers, that is 340 million pieces. However, Shein could reverse this trend.