How Fast Fashion Giant Shein Is Using Big Technology to Change The Way We Shop

Depending on where you’ve been scrolling online in the past year, you may have seen an ad for a company called Shein, with a tagline like “Make your every day a Shein!” and offer to win 250 outfits with one click. Maybe you’ve seen Bachelor celebrities promoting brands, or social media influencers flaunting their “Shein hauls,” unwrapping big boxes of cheap crop tops, bikinis, jeans, and leggings. On TikTok, Instagram, YouTube—Shein seems to be everywhere.

Founded in China in 2012, Shein recently dominated the exploding ultra-fast fashion industry—the business model that is driving social media trends into physical products at a rapid rate. From 2019 to 2020, the company’s revenue rose to $10 billion—a 250% increase. In May 2021, Shein became the most popular shopping app in the US, beating reigning champion Amazon. And then in June, Shein accounted for nearly as much sales as H&M and Zara in the US. But how?

In this week’s episode VICE News Report, host Arielle Duhaime-Ross spoke with journalists Louise Matsakis and Meaghan Tobin, who investigated Shein for the online magazine Rest of the World. Matsakis and Tobin explore how Shein is reinventing fast fashion—and changing a generation’s consumption habits in the process.

“Shein is a huge market that connects thousands of Chinese clothing factories together, all of which sell to overseas consumers. So it’s like a giant Amazon, mostly for clothing,” explains Matsakis. “Ultra-fast fashion doesn’t pay attention to what’s on the runway. They pay attention to what’s going on on social media—and they can rip things apart more quickly. Instead of maybe a hundred items a week, we are talking about thousands of new items a day.”

And the secret sauce? Big data.

“Think of it like an app that can tell a supplier, ‘Your butt-lifting camo print leggings are selling really well, but your purple crop top isn’t,’” says Matsakis. “It can tell suppliers in real time how their goods are being sold.”

Shein operates less like a traditional clothing company and more like a tech startup, with robust internal management software, and agile advertising and social media tools layered on top. In June 2021, report estimates that Shein is worth more than $47 billion—making it one of the most precious private start-up from China. Other companies are watching and trying to emulate this model, including some of China’s biggest tech companies.

VICE News Report takes you to Shein and its ultra-fast fashion engine to understand how it works, and what impact it has—to consumers, workers and the planet.

Listen wherever you get the podcast: Google Podcasts, Spotify, Apple

CREDIT:

This episode was reported by Louise Matsakis, Meaghan Tobin, and Weency Chen, and produced by Sophie Kazis.

VICE News Report hosted by Arielle Duhaime-Ross, and produced by Sophie Kazis, Jen Kinney, and Sayre Quevedo. Our senior producers are Ashley Cleek, Adizah Eghan and Sam Greenspan. Our co-producers are Steph Brown, Sam Eagan, and Adreanna Rodriguez. Sound design and music composition by Steve Bone, Pran Bandi, Natasha Jacobs, and Kyle Murdock.

Our executive producer and Vice President of Audio is Kate Osborn. Janet Lee is the Senior Production Manager for VICE Audio.

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