SHEIN becomes the third largest online fashion retailer in the United States!

As a model of Chinese e-commerce platforms going overseas, SHEIN has always been a low-key but successful presence in the international arena.

According to the latest data from the US website ECDB , SHEIN has become the third largest online fashion retailer in the United States, only behind Amazon and Walmart. At the same time, it has also become the only Chinese company among the top five online fashion retailers in the United States.

Data shows that in 2023, Amazon's sales of fashion products will be $12.3 billion, and Walmart's will be $8.9 billion. SHEIN has captured the hearts of American users with its affordable prices and fast new products, and its fashion sales reached $8.1 billion, only $800 million less than Walmart, which ranks second. The two companies following SHEIN are the old American retailers Macy's and Nike, with sales of $6.4 billion and $4.5 billion respectively.

In addition, according to a survey released by Women's Wear Daily, SHEIN is also the most popular purchase channel and fashion brand in "unboxing" videos on TikTok, accounting for 42% of the total number of home furnishings and clothing displayed in unboxing videos. It is reported that the topic #SHEINhaul has accumulated more than 1.1 billion posts and 14.9 billion views to date.

  As a platform that was only launched in the United States around 2017, SHEIN's achievements are outstanding. However, SHEIN's "ambition" does not stop there. SHEIN is currently also entering other categories in order to better compete with platforms such as Amazon.

In mid-last month, Christina Fontana, senior director of brand operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at SHEIN, also mentioned at a conference in France that “SHEIN is doing business in all verticals”; “users open SHEIN and look for other brands, which provides us with motivation”; “our consumers need (what) brands...that’s what we want to give them.”

According to the data, SHEIN currently provides platforms for brands and retailers in nine European countries including the United States, Brazil , Mexico , the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy . It is worth mentioning that as of January 31, SHEIN's average monthly active users in the EU reached 108 million.

Experts believe that the success of the new marketplace will depend on which brands SHEIN can attract. If SHEIN wants to compete as a trusted yet reputable marketplace platform, it needs the recognition of well-known Western brands, said Annie Chen, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester in Singapore.

However, SHEIN has the confidence to gain a foothold. In a Zoom webinar for potential sellers in the United States last week , Claire Lin, SHEIN 's head of seller marketing , said that the brand has the opportunity to reach millions of shoppers; the shortest shopping time on the website is about 8 minutes, which is much higher than the industry average.

Claire Lin also mentioned that SHEIN 's shoppers are Generation Z and millennials, and are mainly female, with a ratio of about 80 ( female ) -20 ( male ); home, electronics and beauty and health are currently the best performing categories. According to the information presented at the meeting, the total value of home products (the total value of sales products) tripled in 2023, while electronics increased by 2.5 times and beauty and health increased by 2.1 times.

In addition, SHEIN has attracted many third-party brands. Currently, products of beauty and skin care brands such as Caudalie, CeraVe, La Roche-Posay, Shiseido, The Ordinary, Rimmel and Weleda have been sold on the SHEIN platform through third-party retailers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico.

It is reported that in order to enhance its competitiveness in North America, SHINE recently launched a new service - customers can return the products purchased on SHINE at any of Forever 21's more than 300 retail stores in the United States.

SHEIN

USA

Online Fashion Retailer