Present in 220 markets, Shein offers clothing for women in sizes ranging from XS to 5XL as well as menswear, clothes for kids, makeup, and tech and accessories for pets and the household.
The Chinese online retailer reportedly doubled revenues for the past eight years to around $10bn last year, making it the largest pure-play online fashion retailer in the world. Earlier this year, after losing out in the race to buy Topshop in the UK, the company’s muscular online marketing offensive gained it the largest market share in US online fast-fashion.
Despite having popular retailers such as Zara and H&M as its direct competitors, in the first half of this year alone, Shein’s app racked up more than 81 million downloads worldwide.
The business invested £22m in advertising in the last 12 months, and since it started advertising in the UK, its media budget tends to increase every third and fourth quarter. Shein has recently strengthened its C-Suite team with a new CFO who has moved from eBay to help with a potential floatation to raise more funds to invest in growth, marketing and take on rivals Asos and Boohoo.