SHEIN becomes the world's most downloaded shopping app in 2022, but there are these hidden dangers...

As China's largest independent fast fashion B2C cross-border e-commerce platform, SHEIN has developed rapidly around the world at an astonishing speed in recent years and has become the first choice of fast fashion shopping platform in the minds of young people today.

SHEIN becomes the most downloaded shopping app in the world

Recently, SHEIN has achieved great success again, becoming the most downloaded shopping app in the world!

According to the latest data from mobile app analytics platform Apptopia, SHEIN is the most downloaded shopping app in the world in 2022, with 229 million downloads. The second place is Indian social business app Meesho, with 210 million downloads. The third place is Shopee, with 203 million downloads. Amazon ranks fourth with 195 million app downloads. Flipkart's social e-commerce platform Shopsy ranks fifth with 141 million app downloads.

The following rankings are Flipkart, Pinduoduo, Alibaba.com, Lazada and Mercado Libre.

In the US market, Amazon still has the highest number of downloads, with 47 million downloads throughout the year . SHEIN ranks second with 40 million downloads. Walmart ranks third with 32 million downloads. Fetch ranks fourth with 23.2 million downloads. Shop ranks fifth with 22.9 million downloads.

Etsy ranked sixth, Nike ranked seventh, Temu ranked eighth, eBay ranked ninth, and OfferUp ranked tenth.

It is worth mentioning that SHEIN’s downloads in the US market far exceed other platforms, but the gap with Amazon is not very large.

According to data released by Apptopia last year, in the ranking of US shopping apps in the first half of 2022, SHEIN successfully surpassed Amazon and became the most downloaded shopping app in the United States.

In the global e-commerce shopping app rankings in the first half of 2022, SHEIN ranked third and Amazon ranked fourth.

SHEIN has successfully surpassed Amazon in the last two global e-commerce shopping app rankings, and its development momentum can be described as quite rapid.

Data shows that in the fast fashion field in the European and American markets, SHEIN's market share was only 7% in 2020, but it became 30% in 2021, and its revenue has increased by more than 100% for eight consecutive years. According to statistics, the current daily active users of the SHEIN App have reached 22 million, a year-on-year increase of 175%, and the daily download volume has increased by 239.8% year-on-year, with a market share of more than 50%.

In the first half of 2022, SHEIN's sales exceeded US$16 billion, an increase of more than 50% compared with the same period last year. Combined with the peak season sales in the second half of the year, SHEIN is expected to achieve its annual sales target of US$30 billion, one year ahead of schedule.

At present, SHEIN's global influence is becoming increasingly greater, and it is "crazily" harvesting young people around the world. Its cost-effective products just meet the consumption demands of young groups such as Generation Z.

According to a survey conducted by global consulting firm LEK on American Generation Z consumers, SHEIN has become the preferred brand for this group, along with Crocs, Nike, Columbia and Dr Marten's. The most popular sports brands for male and female consumers are Nike and Jordan, while the preferred fashion brands for female Generation Z consumers are SHEIN, Fashion Nova and Prettylittlething.

The reason for its success is largely due to its "hot product strategy". It is understood that SHEIN can launch 7,000 new products every day. Moreover, the products are very cost-effective and very attractive to consumers.

At the same time, SHEIN pays great attention to social platforms to build brand influence. Currently, SHEIN's official account has 26.8 million followers on Instagram. And the #Shein tag has been mentioned 42 billion times on TikTok. Coupled with the promotion effect of social KOL/KOC, SHEIN's products have quickly become popular among young people.

According to statistics, SHEIN currently has nearly 300 million fans across the entire network, with more than 30 million annual active users.

Behind the rapid development, SHEIN is plagued by negative news!

However, behind the glamour, SHEIN also faces many controversies.

Over the past three years, SHEIN has faced at least 50 lawsuits in the United States alleging that it infringed the plaintiffs' intellectual property rights.

On the other hand, overseas environmentalists accuse SHEIN of having products that do not meet environmental standards.

In November 2022, Greenpeace Germany released a report saying that it had tested 47 SHEIN products and found that seven of them contained "harmful chemicals" that exceeded the limits of EU environmental regulations.

At the same time, SHEIN was also accused of serious waste of resources. SHEIN 's production model was accused by the outside world of being too wasteful and not conducive to sustainable development.

In addition to the above problems, the media previously broke the news that the workers in the SHEIN factory have increased their working hours to 75 hours per week. Moreover, the workers' wages are very low, only 4 euro cents per piece.

Bank of America analyzed that the various problems with SHEIN may lead to the US government issuing relevant bans. In the future development of SHEIN , it may face stricter supervision and review.

SHEIN also responded to the above issues, hoping to improve the negative views of its brand among foreign consumers and media through a series of actions.

In response to the infringement issue, SHEIN stated that it will expand the investment in non-apparel categories such as maternal and child products and pet accessories. At the same time, it will strengthen the copyright review of suppliers' products and require suppliers to provide copyright certificates for their products.

Regarding the environmental issues with its products, SHEIN promised to strengthen the sustainability of the company's development in the future, using more recycled fibers in the production process and using ships to transport products.

In response to the problems existing in the factories, SHEIN announced that it will invest $15 million over the next four years to improve working conditions in nearly 300 factories and raise workers' wage standards.

SHEIN's listing plan postponed again?

For SHEIN, another unavoidable topic is listing.

At the beginning of 2022, SHEIN, which was repeatedly rumored to be going public, was once again rumored to be going public. At that time, people familiar with the matter said that SHEIN was considering restarting its IPO plan in the United States, which would be listed as early as 2022, and had hired Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to be responsible for the IPO. However, it was later denied that the company currently has no plans to go public.

Not long after the denial, news of SHEIN's listing came out again.

According to foreign media reports citing people familiar with the matter, Chinese fast fashion giant SHEIN hopes to conduct an initial public offering in the United States as early as 2024.

The report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that SHEIN is raising a $1 billion round of financing in early 2022. After this round of financing, SHEIN's valuation may be as high as $100 billion. During the financing period, SHEIN expressed to investors its hope to go public as early as 2024.

It is reported that SHEIN postponed its IPO plan because the company faced scrutiny due to the working hours of its factory workers.

It is not known whether this rumor is true, but SHEIN faces many questions about the environment, society and corporate governance (ESG) behind its rapid development, which may become obstacles to its listing.

Moreover, in the current market environment, SHEIN is also facing the pressure of transformation and upgrading. Let us wait and see whether SHEIN can continue to advance rapidly in the future.

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