SheIn is considered to be the largest cross-border fast fashion e-commerce company in China, mainly targeting consumer markets such as the Middle East, Europe and the United States. Its sites cover the United States, France, Russia, Germany and other countries, and its products are sold to more than 80 countries. It is reported that the total installed base of SheIn mobile APP has exceeded 3 million. In 2015, Shein received more than RMB 300 million in Series B financing from IDG and Jinglin Capital. SheIn entered the Middle East in 2016, and its sales in the Middle East reached 200 million yuan that year. Currently, SheIn ranks among the top ten shopping apps in terms of downloads in two major markets in the Middle East: the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
SheIn is an independent cross-border e-commerce website that takes fast fashion women's clothing to the extreme and only sells its own brand of clothing on the site.
A SheIn executive once wrote on his social account:
"In this era, don't say you want to be eBay, Amazon, or Taobao. If you keep doing this, you will just go with the flow and let the big waves wash away the sand. Now you have to say you want to make a handbag, a battery, or a piece of clothing. And you have to go deeper into the field and keep doing it. Only then can you accumulate experience and make a breakthrough."
Since 2012, SheIn has been growing rapidly with an annual performance growth of over 100%. As of April 2017, the business covers 224 countries and regions around the world, with over 20 million users, mainly European and American women aged 16-30. The C round of financing is in progress and the growth trend is sustainable. In 2018, SheIn expects to expand to 4,000 employees and achieve annual sales of 10 billion.
Looking back at SheIn's development history, we found that its success is mainly due to the following three reasons:
The first is focus.
SheIn targets the market of "cross-border fast fashion clothing" and integrates supply chain resources. All the products listed on the website are women's clothing that are independently designed, produced and sold. Despite its rapid development and considerable success, SheIn still focuses on the "women's clothing" category. It was not until this year that SheIn expanded its product categories to children's clothing and men's clothing.
The second is to start early.
In fact, SheIn is one of the earliest companies in China to build independent cross-border e-commerce websites. In 2008, when “sheinside”, the predecessor of “SheIn”, was founded, Sheln established an independently operated site. Four years later, "sheinside" was upgraded to its own brand "SheIn", focusing on the field of fast fashion women's clothing and establishing a marketing model of "Internet celebrity recommendation". In the same year, sales reached 40 million RMB; the following year, SheIn received a US$5 million Series A financing from JAFCO Asia.
The third is to focus on word-of-mouth marketing and build a "brand".
SheIn staff said that SheIn's corporate culture is "weak publicity, strong reputation", and most of the company's funds are used to improve clothing quality and optimize user experience, rather than traditional advertising promotion. But when it comes to social media, Shein is definitely a master. Its Facebook page has more than 10 million followers and has a large number of cooperating fashion blogs. This lays a solid foundation for the increase and stability of its website traffic.
Fourth, focus on optimizing the supply chain.
Currently, SheIn’s independent “flexible supply chain” is capable of rapid pattern making, production, and manufacturing, and has strong design and production capabilities. SheIn’s supply chain can produce 200 new models every day, which can be shipped in as fast as seven days.
In 2014, the second year after launching its own brand, SheIn began to establish a supply chain center, build and improve the supply chain system, and gradually explore the path of independent research and development and design. At the same time, a warehousing system was built, and warehouses were established in the Americas and Europe. In the same year, SheIn acquired its competitor Rowew.
In 2015, SheIn acquired MAKEMECHIC, significantly increasing its market share in North America; established a US customer service center, and set up sites in Australia, the Middle East, India and other places.
Fifth, it has a keen sense of smell and a leading layout in mobile terminals. As early as 2015, SheIn acquired Shenzhen KuShang, improving its layout in the mobile Internet field. This laid a solid foundation for the outbreak in the past two years.
The above is an analysis of what SheIn is and the reasons for SheIn’s success. If you want to know more about SheIn, please continue to follow us!
