Win the game! SHEIN sweeps the South African APP download list

South Africa is known as the "Rainbow Country" for its colorful natural landscapes, historical culture, and peaceful coexistence of people of different skin colors . Since its debut here in 2020, SHEIN's popularity has soared rapidly. So far, its popularity has surpassed popular applications such as WhatsApp .

On October 26, local time , MyBroadband, a large technology and IT website, released an observation report. The report shows that SHEIN is the most downloaded APP in the shopping category of Google Play , and the first APP in total downloads on Google Play . In the Apple App Store , it is also the third most downloaded APP in total and the first in shopping app downloads . Superbalist, a long-established local e-commerce platform in South Africa, ranks eighth in the download ranking of the Google store.

Although download volume is an important indicator of the popularity of e-commerce platforms, it can only explain part of the problem. Take Superbalist for example. Although it ranks only eighth in download volume, in a survey of 1,062 MyBroadband users on "frequently visited online clothing shopping platforms", Superbalist received 41% of the votes, while SHEIN received 34%.

However, although Superbalist is more commonly used, it was released in 2010, while SHEIN was released 10 years later.

One of the reasons why SHEIN is most popular here is the price. According to MyBroadband, even with shipping costs and import taxes, South African users can still easily buy 5-10 items on this platform for less than 1,000 rand (about 383 yuan).

This price also makes users more tolerant of its delivery time, even if it may take several weeks. However, an old customer of shein in South Africa said that the delivery time of this platform is now greatly shortened, and some orders can be received one week after the order is placed.

Compared with the rapid development of SHEIN, Superbalist is struggling. In August this year, due to the dual pressures of slow growth in performance and offline retailers, Superbalist had to choose to lay off employees. Its parent company has also been working hard to improve its profitability.

Superbalist did not directly answer the question of whether SHEIN would have an impact on its business , but a company spokesperson said, "We have never shied away from competing with international rivals and believe that the products and services we provide are world-class; South Africans are shopping online more and more frequently, and there are growth opportunities for all categories of goods."

SHEIN

South Africa