It was, however, the retailer’s early use of TikTok and ability to market viral products that skyrocketed Shein’s popularity. Throughout the early 2010s, Shein launched overseas sites in Spain, France, Russia, Italy, and Germany, and began selling cosmetics, shoes, bags, and jewelry, in addition to womenswear. According to a translated https://traderoom.info/ article from the Chinese tech site LatePost, by 2016, Xu had assembled a team of 800 designers and prototypers, dedicated to rapidly producing Shein-branded clothes. Shein also began honing its supply chain, cutting out suppliers that produced “mediocre-quality products or images,” according to a 2016 press release.
- She agrees with Winder that consumers and companies alike are being more cognizant of the lasting environmental impacts that come from fast fashion cycles.
- Whenever you fork over your credit card number and other personal information, you want to make sure the site you’re using is safe.
- Following the completely legal copycat model of most fast fashion retailers, Shein employs workers to recreate trending designs for its own products.
- After posting glowing reviews of their trips, the influencers faced a lot of backlash for ignoring mounting allegations of questionable labor ethics and concerns about Shein’s role in climate pollution.
- This Shein clothing review will highlight reviews found on TrustPilot, Sitejabber, Reviewed, and Reddit, which mention the brand’s products, customer service, shipping, and more, to help give you a better overall impression of the brand.
She accuses the company of «preying on the fears of outfit repetition syndrome», with Shein pieces in haul videos «likely to be discarded to landfill after just a few wears and washes». Eventually, she also snapped up homeware, joggers and even got her mum into shopping on the website. These efforts have been boosted by the fact that it often hosts live shows on its platforms to promote its products.
Of these products, researchers at the University of Toronto found that two Shein items — a jacket made for toddlers as well as a red purse — contained higher amounts of lead than is healthy. The jacket tested as having 20 times the amount of lead that is safe for children to be exposed to, and the purse, five. Along with this, a children’s tutu dress from Shein was tested as having an elevated (but not necessarily unsafe) amount of phthalates. Producing clothes, in itself, negatively impacts the environment in a number of ways. For one thing, polyester — a material that Greenpeace predicts is used in 60% of modern clothing — emits more greenhouse gases (like CO2) than alternative materials, like cotton (via World Research Institute). Also, when washed, polyester releases microplastics (which can take decades to centuries to break down) into the ocean, harming marine and human species when ingested, per The Guardian.
Environmental impact
One woman filmed a box truck delivering a giant box to her driveway after she said she bought $2,000 worth of Shein products. Shein gave fast fashion a whole new meaning by using AI technology to identify trends and an online-only model to churn out thousands of garments in record time. A scroll of their app makes it easy to see why the phrase ‘addicted to Shein’ pops up a lot on Twitter .
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Several designers and artists have accused the company of making blatant rip-offs of their work, but there’s little that can be done, besides drawing the internet’s attention to it. During Shein’s early years, there was very little that distinguished the brand from other Chinese e-commerce retailers, except that it sold wedding gowns. According to reporting from PandaYoo, an English-language site published by Chinese bloggers, Shein sourced its products from China’s wholesale clothing market in Guangzhou, a region where many Chinese garment factories and markets are centralized. Shein wasn’t involved in any aspect of garment design or manufacturing. It operated much like a dropshipping business that sells products from third-party wholesalers directly to overseas shoppers. Similarly, Reuters reported that the Modern Slavery Act of 2015 requires companies who do business in the United Kingdom and bring in more than 36 million pounds of items a year to state the actions they are taking to work against forced labor.
Shein battled rival Temu in dual lawsuits and designers sued the fast-fashion company, alleging that it stole their artwork.
Meta isn’t the only U.S. internet company effected by the speedy growth from Temu and Shein. Cross-border ad revenue, Wieser estimated that more than $7 billion in sales last year came from China. The only number Meta provides is for the Asia-Pacific region, which accounted for $6.9 billion in third-quarter revenue, or about 20% of the total. “To (assume) that all of Gen Z think in the same way is a mistake,” says Jodi Muter-Hamilton, founder of the sustainability and communications consultancy Other day.
She attends American University in Washington, D.C., and is studying business administration and journalism. «It’s such a pressure on the system, and the impacts are going to be tenfold in years to come if we don’t fully handle it now,» Schmidt said. «We need to be able to understand the sheer volume of waste we are producing.»
Retail analysts Edited report that 70% of its products have been on the site less than three months. Determining your size in any piece of online clothing is tricky business, and that’s especially true at Shein, where standards vary. Most shoppers suggest utilizing the size guide on each product rather than purchasing your usual size. A few item categories are not eligible for returns, including bodysuits, lingerie, underwear, jewelry, cosmetics, pet products, and customized products. If an item isn’t eligible for returns, it’ll be marked on the product page (or specified by Shein’s customer service representative if you decide to contact them directly).
However, a Shein spokesperson denied the company has any plans to go public in a statement to Global News on Tuesday. Long heralded as a disruptor for its online-only model, Shein has also started toying with pop-up storefronts, potentially bringing its brand to a wider, in-person audience. If you’re a regular online shopper — especially if you’re under the age of 30 or so — you’ve probably seen the name Shein, and might have bought an outfit or two from the retailer. Be sure to read up on your items return policy before buying because the policy varies from item to item. Items that cannot be returned or exchanged include bodysuits, lingerie, swimwear, jewelry, underwear, event and party supplies, DIY supplies, beauty, and accessories (except scarves, bags, mermaid blankets), and pet supplies.
Although the influencers who work with the brand consistently rave about and flaunt their Shein clothes on social media applications like TikTok and Instagram, shoppers who aren’t affiliated with the company sometimes share different opinions. But these hiccups — which are offensive at worst, and weird at best — are partly a direct result of Shein’s fast production cycle. Following the completely legal copycat model of most fast fashion retailers, Shein employs workers to recreate trending designs for its own products. The artwork on Shein’s offensive phone case was replicated without permission from a 2014 drawing by French graphic artist Jean Jullien, in the wake of the Ferguson uprisings.
If you purchase something from Shein that you’re not satisfied with, you can return it. The online retailer accepts unworn returns within 35 days of the date of purchase; all tags must be on the item. When leaving a review on a Shein product, the reviewer has the opportunity to comment on the «product quality»—so you can check the assessment difference between information and data for individual items. Because the company produces so much, the level of craftsmanship may be different from piece to piece. The site has a large inventory of cheap clothes across multiple categories, meaning shoppers can stock up on everything from winter attire to tropical vacation wear to Halloween costumes all in one place.
«You don’t get that big that fast without taking share from many people, and I think we and most players in e-commerce have had some impact.» Meta finance chief Susan Li said on the last earnings call in October that the company has «benefited from spend among advertisers in China reaching customers in other markets,» echoing comments she made in April. Although Meta didn’t name Temu and Shein by name, analysts widely speculated that they were most responsible for the sales lift, considering their explosive growth of late. According to an interview CEO Molly Miao gave to Forbes, it drops 700 to 1,000 new items a day on the site.
Miao, Gu and Ren all have stakes of about 8%, valuing them at about $5 billion each, the publication said. Shein was founded in China in 2012 by four co-founders, according to its website, although the closely-held e-commerce company shifted its headquarters to Singapore in 2022. Shein declined to comment to CBS MoneyWatch on the reported IPO filing, which was filed for a reported 2024 stock sale.
