
Credit: Shein via Twitter
Fast fashion — the idea that clothing trends change rapidly and so should the stock of retailers — was pioneered by brands like Zara, H&M and Forever 21, and predicated on speedy supply chains and low cost production.
Now, a little-known Chinese brand named Shein is disrupting the fashion industry by using slick social media campaigns and aggressive promotions on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram to sell ultra low-cost clothing to teens and college-aged consumers throughout the world. And it’s doing it primarily through online clicks.
Pop icons Katy Perry and Lil Nas X performed at its online digital festival last year, attracting 1.6 million viewers. And of the world’s most highly trafficked websites in the lifestyle, fashion and apparel category, Shein now ranks No. 1, ahead of global brands like Nike, Zara, H&M, Uniqlo and Gap, according to the web analytics firm Similarweb.
“What sets Shein apart is its mastery of this generation’s preferred marketing and sales channels, especially TikTok and e-commerce,” says Benjamin Schneider, a fashion and luxury goods analyst at Euromonitor, which tracks consumer buying trends.
Shein (pronounced Shee-in)1There are indications the company was earlier named SheInside says it introduces 1,000 new items daily, marketing tank tops for $2.40, skirts for $2.99 and purses for as little as $8. The company doesn’t own a single factory. Instead, it simply spots online trends, sources from a network of supplier factories and then ships globally, at prices that are virtually impossible to beat.
Investors are betting it’s the next e-commerce giant. Big venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital China, IDG Capital and Tiger Global Management have invested tens of millions of dollars in the firm and it was valued in August 2020 at $15 billion, according to Pitchbook, which tracks venture investments.
Forbes has called the company “China’s Mysterious $15 Billion Fast Fashion Retailer,” and Quartz insists that if you’re not familiar with Shein, “odds are you’re not a teenage girl.” In fact, Shein is among a new wave of Chinese e-commerce brands — like Jollychic and Zaful — that are bypassing both retail distributors and traditional brick and mortar stores, and selling directly to global consumers.

Credit: Shein, via Instagram
In a statement released to The Wire, Molly Miao, Shein’s chief marketing officer, said the company’s valuation was $5 billion, that revenue in 2020 was “several billion.” She also noted, “We do intend to IPO at some point in the future, but as of now we have no plans to do so anytime soon.”
While privately-owned Shein does not release financials, analysts estimate that its sales topped $2.8 billion in 2019, and that its revenue was far bigger last year, during the pandemic. It’s unclear how profitable the business is, but analysts also say its low cost business model likely means it achieves healthy margins on the products it sells.
A recent report by the investment bank Piper Sandler, which tracks fashion trends, says Shein is now the most popular fashion brand among teenage shoppers in the United States. One measure of its online popularity is its social media metrics: it has 19 million followers on Instagram and nearly 2 million on TikTok. It succeeds by purchasing ads on Facebook and hiring “micro-influencers” — people paid in gifts of free clothing or cash — to promote its brand online.
“You identify influencers that are popular in the demographic you want to sell to and you give them free clothes to write reviews,” says Ben Cavender, a managing director at the China Market Research Group in Shanghai, a strategy consulting firm. “Shein is not really a design company. They are sourcing from a ton of different suppliers and throwing stuff up on the internet and seeing what happens.”
Shein’s success, though, has not come without controversy. In online reviews, consumers have complained about the quality of its products, its marketing mishaps — such as selling necklaces that appeared to have swastikas (the symbols are also used in Buddhism) and selling prayer mats as decorative rugs (the company apologized) — and for fueling the growth of an industry that has been accused of exploiting garment workers. Most recently the company publicly apologized for selling a phone case with an image of a black person in handcuffs outlined by chalk.
Also, as a fast fashion leader, Shein is in an industry that has been accused of generating vast amounts of throw away items that are wasteful and rely on low-cost labor. Labor rights organizations have targeted the industry alleging environmental destruction and abusive labor conditions.
Very little about the company’s background is clear. A spokesperson says it is headquartered in Singapore and Shenzhen, the economic boomtown in southern China, though some reports list its headquarters as Nanjing. The company was founded in 2008 by a then 25-year-old entrepreneur named Chris Xu,2A 2013 press release says that Chris Xu is an American-born Chinese who studied at the University of Washington, though Chinese media reports say he was born in China. but struggled to find a niche in selling wedding dresses before reinventing itself as a fast fashion brand targeting the overseas market.
According to data provided by WireScreen, a division of The Wire that tracks corporate filings, Xu3His Chinese name is Xu Yangtian holds stakes in at least five companies registered in China, including Nanjing-based Shein Information Technology.4The firm, which the Chinese government at one time held a small stake in, was recently deregistered.
Its explosive growth was helped by a number of factors: the growth of ecommerce, and the ability to sell globally without partnering with big malls or retail outlets or distributors. A growing number of brands create their own ads, promote them on social media, and — thanks to extremely low-cost shipping, particularly to the U.S. — simply take orders and ship directly to American customers.
The company has mastered the art of trend-spotting, sourcing and ease of online checkout systems. Shaun Rein, the founder of the Shanghai-based China Market Research Group, says Chinese firms have become incredibly sophisticated at ecommerce — and often move faster than western firms.
“The world needs to get used to companies like Shein going global,” he says.
Curiously, Shein is focused primarily on Europe, the U.S., Australia and countries in the Middle East. And the company does not promote itself as a Chinese brand, and in its marketing seems to downplay any ties to China, perhaps because of the country’s reputation for knock-offs, analysts say. Allison Malmsten, who follows consumer trends for Daxue Consulting, as a China Market Analyst, says the company is aware of the impression that “China is often synonymous with counterfeit or cheap goods and they don’t want that to hinder them.”
The company also seems to be linked to other popular online brands, including Romwe and Zoetop. Daxue Consulting says Shein alone listed 150,000 items on its website in 2020.
While it is difficult to assess the scale of its business, the Shein app has been downloaded more than 229 million times, as of October 2020, according to a report in Reuters. And a recent Piper Sandler report listed Shein as the eighth most popular brand among teenagers, and second most popular website for American teens, after Amazon.
Shein is not really a design company. They are sourcing from a ton of different suppliers and throwing stuff up on the internet and seeing what happens.
Ben Cavender, a managing director at the China Market Research Group
“I see a lot of YouTubers and I’m like, ‘They’re always dressed so nice. If I get this from Shein maybe I’ll look like them,’” says Juli Yoo, a 23-year-old accountant from California. “I know Shein isn’t a high quality brand; it’s a fast-fashion brand, so the clothes aren’t going to be perfect or well fitting but I don’t mind it so much because of the price I’m paying.”
Sydney Dietz, a 21-year-old senior at Skidmore College, says: “It’s crazy how much stuff is on their website. You could search on the website for hours and hours.”
Though it’s unclear how far the fast fashion craze will go, quickly growing brands like Shein, U.S.-based Fashion Nova and U.K-based Boohoo and others from China are shaking up retail, and putting pressure on traditional stores, like the Gap, H&M and Zara.
Analysts say that to the surprise of many, Chinese e-commerce firms have grown sophisticated in marketing and pushing out stock, and are starting to win a significant share of the market, even in the United States.
“All online gives Shein a lot more freedom. Looking back on the Zaras and H&Ms, they were so beholden to physical retail,” says Robert Burke, the Chairman and CEO of Robert Burke Associates, a consulting firm specializing in retail and fashion. Social media is the consumer’s lifeline today, he says. “That is how they communicate and discover brands.”

Lily Meier is a recent graduate of Bates College. She currently works in community health care in Boston and as a freelance journalist. Her research has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).