In recent years, a China-based e-commerce retailer, known as SHEIN, has taken off and grown widely popular amongst teens and young adults. Rapidly growing by the second, this fast-fashion brand has now become one of the most downloaded shopping apps worldwide. In 2020 SHEIN was valued at nearly fifteen billion dollars. Now, after only twenty months, the company has achieved an astonishing one hundred billion-dollar valuation, making SHEIN one of the world’s most valuable private companies. The company is now worth more than H&M and Zara combined and is just as valuable as Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The company still manages to make big bucks with prices as low as two dollars for a top. So, how did a small Chinese start-up become one of the most lucrative private companies in the world? SHEIN’s claim to fame can primarily be attributed to technology. We live in an online world where all companies have access to a massive quantity of data, one of the most valuable assets in the retail industry. Cookies and algorithms have been used regularly by businesses to track trends and determine customer behavior. While these data-collecting methods are effective and provide companies with valuable information, they are not timely, and when it comes to fast fashion, there is no time to waste.
SHEIN takes its consumer-tracking technology to new levels by using artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence generates design ideas from its target customers’ search and social media habits. Every like, click, share, and comment is tracked and used to determine and predict new style trends. The designs are forwarded to Shein’s designers, who work overtime around the clock, translating them into unique pieces of clothing. The designs are then manufactured and sold and passed over to suppliers through their enterprise resource planning system (ERP). The ERP automatically raises the order volume for manufacturers based on the popularity of an item. This real-time model reduces the time it takes to go from idea to finished product from three weeks to three days. This is substantially faster than its competitor Zara, which has a five-week turnaround time.
Using Artificial Intelligence, SHEIN has transformed ‘fast fashion’ into even faster fashion, thus, turning over extremely high profits. While the concept of fast fashion is not new, this method of targeting and marketing is. The fast fashion industry has been under fire for unethical practices for ages, but their use of technology is brilliant. Businesses and organizations must figure out how to use this technology and redirect it to follow ethical boundaries. Doing so would completely change the fashion business, making sustainable fashion ever faster.
Words and graphics by Caroline Dewees and Samantha Dearing.