Love it or hate it, Shein is doing astoundingly well when measured by its revenues. It generated US $45 billion in 2023, quite literally commanding its selected suppliers to churn out products-to-order on a scale that most here in the UK would not believe. It dwarfs the likes of Primark and H&M and has cut swathes across the UK, taking market share from Asos and Boohoo, to name just two businesses that have suffered over the last few years.
The question must be: how can a business sell garments for so little? Well, its products are mostly of very low quality with few or no trimmings. Fabrics are flimsy, lightweight, man-made, and whilst they photograph well, the customers get what they pay for. Sizing is often way off what it claims to be, and the fit is often odd.
It is also hard to believe that the factory workers employed to make all of this ‘stuff’ will be anything close to well paid or that their work hours would be acceptable to a worker in the West.
But when the end customer has only spent £5 all-in on a top or a dress for it to be shipped halfway around the world to them, that me-me-me customer has the blinkers on and prefers not to think too deeply about it (in case it upsets them). And there are millions upon millions like this who seem perfectly happy to buy repeatedly from Shein.
Notably, many charity shops will not accept Shein (or Boohoo) clothing donations as they don’t sell when customers can see how poorly made the garments are ‘in real life’.
Is this mass-market production machine in any way sustainable? When will global consumers call time on cheap fast fashion? Will governments begin to levy taxes on imports from the likes of Shein, which currently enter our country freely only to end up in landfills in a very short space of time? Is anyone considering these imports’ impact on our fashion brands? Or the impact that Shein’s team of trendwatchers, AKA copyists, is having on our designers?
Or will the decision whether or not to allow Shein to list here boil down to how much money it will bring to the square mile?
We hear that Shein is busy courting senior City people and those with UK government connections as it seeks to acquire a veneer of respectability.
When what we’d like to hear is that our Government is calling for a study on the impact that a business like Shein has on businesses in our own fashion sector and on the environment BEFORE any decision is reached on whether to allow Shein to list on the London Stock Exchange.
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