SHEIN's marketing strategy has begun to circulate on its own, with big and small influencers "working together"

Speaking of SHEIN, almost everyone in Generation Z in the United States doesn't know it. After all, SHEIN has defeated NIKE twice and ranked second among the favorite retailers of American teenagers, second only to Amazon.

Moreover, on TikTok alone , the #shein tag has received 6.2 billion views, and the SHEIN brand name has appeared in more than 70 other popular topic tags; on Instagram, SHEIN's 10 related accounts cover more than 200 countries and regions around the world, with a total of 30 million followers.

When SHEIN was first founded in 2008, it mainly sold cheap wedding dresses. After it transformed into selling various fast fashion clothing in 2015, it increased its investment in social media marketing.

Currently, SHEIN is a DTC vertical brand that sells clothing, household products, pet products and other categories. It is thriving in affiliate marketing . Millions of mysterious "mercenaries" contribute 10% of SHEIN's traffic and are an important force behind SHEIN's annual sales of tens of billions of dollars.

The application channel for SHEIN's affiliate marketing program has been opened on the official website. After the application is approved, fan influencers around the world can post on their social media accounts and attach product links for brand promotion. They will receive a commission of 10%-20% for each transaction.

Therefore, SHEIN's Instagram account can not only publish content from TikTok super-influencers such as Addison Rae, but also repost some promotional content created by micro-influencers with only 2,000-50,000 followers. It can be said to be a "two-pronged" marketing strategy that captures both large and small influencers .

In an interview, Malcolm Yam, general manager of SHEIN India, said that in the Indian market alone, SHEIN reached cooperation with about 2,000 influencers in 2018, the first year of its entry into the market. At that time, SHEIN was eager to contact potential partners every day.

Through the interaction of consumers under its different accounts, SHEIN can optimize its regional marketing strategy and establish closer ties with consumers in each market. SHEIN 's Instagram accounts in different regions have achieved frequent content releases, usually 5 to 8 posts a day , which indirectly reflects the large number of its influencer partners, which can provide it with a steady stream of original content materials.

After a series of marketing combinations, SHEIN successfully won the hearts of Generation Z in the United States, which led to the scene at the beginning of the article where the brand received a lot of attention from users on social media platforms.

In addition to operating a fan community, SHEIN also actively organizes live broadcast events.

It is reported that SHEIN hosts Instagram live performance events every Wednesday; after the outbreak of the epidemic last year, it also invited A-listers Katy Perry, Lil Nas X, Rita Ora, Hailey Bieber and Yara Shahidi to participate in its #SheinTogether live fundraising concert to support the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

However, SHEIN's decisive advantage in brand marketing lies in the brand image it creates through UGC content. This branding method gives SHEIN an extraordinary atmosphere that is both mysterious and popular. As mentioned above, SHEIN's fan base has contributed countless high-quality content materials to the brand. Among the 10 most viewed SHEIN clothing try-on videos on YouTube, only two are sponsored by the brand, and the others are actively promoted by fans ↓

SHEIN's powerful supply chain and its small-order, quick-return model have created a new product launch speed that is difficult for other brands to match. The addition of 500 new products for sale every day has increased consumers' purchase frequency and also encouraged brand fans to create more brand promotion videos.

Currently, with the rise of short video platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels, participants in SHEIN's affiliate program can showcase more clothing styles in a shorter time and reach more potential customers through the viral spread of short videos of more than ten seconds.

In this ecological cycle formed by the tacit cooperation of brand marketing and product operations, the wave SHEIN has created on social media is expected to continue into the next 10 years.

Affiliate Marketing

SHEIN