Conquering overseas fashion trend consumers, the fashion industry is digging for gold around the world at SHEIN

Recently, the British media reported an interesting thing. Blogger Eloura, unwilling to pay high rent, launched a plan to make her own "ultimate little home": she first got a damp and moldy RV for free from Facebook Marketplace , and then used the goods purchased from SHEIN and Amazon to "renovate" the old car.

In just four weeks, DIY expert Eloura transformed the "scrap iron" into a cozy home and moved in with her children . On social media , she showed her transformation process to netizens around the world, which has received more than 1 million views and thousands of likes. Netizens are not only interested in this creative and practical magical plan, but also in the fact that Eloura only used S HEIN and Amazon to buy all the trendy decorations and hundreds of household necessities.

Made in China and international trends are moving in both directions

Overseas fashion consumers flock to Shein's "rabbit hole"

Affordable, practical and good-looking Chinese products are the favorite choices of overseas consumers. Elouras are not only immersed in novel online shopping experiences, but also happy to share their shopping achievements, showing off the new things they bought in large and small packages on social media. The latest survey released by Women's Wear Daily shows that SHEIN, a cross-border e-commerce company from China, is the most popular purchase channel and fashion brand for "unboxing" videos on Tik Tok. The number of times " SHEIN " appears in unboxing videos accounts for 42 % of the total number of home furnishings and clothing displayed . On the website, the topic of #SHEIN haul has accumulated an astonishing 14.9 billion views so far.

The social media site shows that the short video topic #sheinhaul has received 14.9 billion views

In forum posts and short videos about fashion shopping experiences, foreign netizens often mention SHEIN as if they were talking about the "rabbit hole" that helped Alice to start her journey in Wonderland. Especially young consumers represented by Generation Z , this group of "Internet users " who account for 25 % of the world's total population , focus on showing their individuality and pursuing diverse aesthetics, and have become the most active opinion leaders in the affordable fashion circle. They have a strong mindset for buying fashion clothes on SHEIN, and their "grass-planting show" has also pushed other categories of good products on SHEIN to the forefront of the trend.

Let's turn our attention from the overseas fashion front to the domestic market, Linhai, Zhejiang. Two lenses plus a frame, Duqiao Town in Linhai, Zhejiang is China's "hometown of glasses", focusing on the design, assembly and manufacturing of glasses for more than 40 years. Seller Chen Yuheng took over the glasses business from his father's generation in a "half-succession, half-entrepreneurship" way. After two years of joining the S HEIN platform, he built his own overseas "fashion counter" and created more than 500 hit items.

Before this, Chen Yuheng's family company had many years of experience in foreign trade eyewear orders. Foreign customers mostly supplied the goods to local supermarkets and hypermarkets, and the limited supermarket shelves did not require frequent innovations in eyewear styles. This also led to Chen Yuheng being able to supply only a few basic styles all year round, and it was always difficult to expand overseas.

When the frames in the shape of sharp corners, circles, triangles, and bows are matched with different patterns such as color matching, flowers, gradients, and leopard prints, glasses quickly change from functional products to "beauty artifacts in one second", which are well received by consumers. After joining S HEIN , Chen Yuheng can directly face overseas consumers , actively combine the trend guidance and consumer hot spots provided by the platform to innovate glasses, and continuously try styles, colors, and new materials through small orders to deepen his understanding of market preferences and adjust his production and operation in a timely manner .

"Foreign beauties like glasses that have texture and weight. This year we started to make sunglasses in light colors such as ocean and coral, and the response from consumers was particularly good," Chen Yuheng told the media.

As the number of consumer groups covered increases and the styles that need to be developed become more complex, the size of Chen Yuheng's team continues to expand. Currently, the sales growth brought by cross-border e-commerce accounts for more than half of Chen Yuheng's family company's business. He not only established the development and operation departments suitable for e-commerce business, but also doubled the number of factory employees. The traditional eyewear assembly line has been able to achieve capacity renewal under the pressure of hot demand.

Fashion industry belt ignites global fashion at SHEIN

Niche decoration has become a necessity for global trendsetters, and some people sell 14 million per month because of it

If lipstick is the top fashion item in China, then the top overseas item that can compete with it is "wig". On Tiktok, the cumulative number of views of the topic "wig" has exceeded 30 billion , and the popularity is comparable to that of "lipstick". There are nearly 13 million posts about "wig" on Instagram . The niche accessories in China have become a must-have for fashionistas when they are placed overseas.

Consumers of different skin colors show off the wigs they bought from the SHEIN platform

Many consumers spend more on wigs than on their own hair. A piece of hair is worth a thousand gold. Deng Nan, a cross-border seller engaged in the hair products business, had noticed the demand for wigs in the overseas market earlier. After seeing SHEIN launch a platform strategy, he decisively chose to join and sold 350,000 yuan in the first month of this inconspicuous niche business . In 2024 , this number has reached 14 million per month.

Deng Nan is not the only one. As the world's largest hair products industry base, Yiwu, Zhejiang and Xuchang, Henan have a large number of sellers who make a living by selling hair products. Especially in Xuchang, the number of direct practitioners in the hair products industry has exceeded 300,000 , which means that on average one in every 15 people here is engaged in this industry .

Deng Nan used the phrase "riding a rocket" to describe the speed of shipments after settling in S HEIN . The booming business has driven employment. Deng Nan and many of his peers are still continuing to recruit employees for operations, design and other positions. There is also a lot of outsiders who come here to join this wig town's gold-digging business.

Deng Nan observed that the fashion categories on the S HEIN platform are complete and the user stickiness is high. Consumers who buy clothes, cosmetics, and accessories will come to look at wigs by the way. Even different categories have a good mutual promotion effect. He said: "It feels like foreign consumers shopping at S HEIN is like visiting an offline salon store, buying all the fashion equipment in one stop. Some users buy more than a dozen wigs at a time. They just wear them for themselves and regard wigs as a necessity for going out ."

It is revealed that many wig sellers on SHEIN have registered wig brands. They develop products based on the needs of consumers in different countries and match different products and models to target the target groups. A seller told the media: "For example, the Middle East market prefers brown and black, while the European and American markets like bold colors. Different regions also like special shapes such as waves and braids with different curvatures. We make them and put them on SHEIN . Consumers buy more and the repurchase rate is very impressive ."

Another contact lens seller, Cheng Ao, has also opened the door to overseas markets with niche products. Just three months after launching on the S HEIN platform, Cheng Ao's contact lens brand's sales in January exceeded 2.8 million yuan, far exceeding his initial imagination. What surprised him was not only the surge in overseas orders, but also the advanced demand for "contact lenses" shown by store consumers. From anime contact lenses that simulate comic characters, to the dazzling and colorful starry sky series, to animal contact lenses that meet special dressing needs, many consumers have posted their unique makeup embellished with contact lenses on the website's buyer show page. To this day, there are still many new and unique contact lens products dominating the Best Seller sales list.

In recent years, the penetration rate of e-commerce in overseas markets has been increasing, and local retailers also hope to expand their online business, and even develop many shopping malls to encourage consumers to develop the habit of "online ordering". The booming global fashion trade market is an important reason for attracting Chinese sellers to go global .

Although the international fashion market is mature, there are many consumer brands participating in the competition, and Chinese cross-border sellers are still young as a whole, there is already an indispensable place for Made in China in the fashion world. In particular, factory-based and trade-based sellers no longer rely on receiving orders from foreign companies to maintain production, but rather hope to achieve their own success overseas through cross-border platforms such as SHEIN and open up a broader global consumer market.

In the past few days, Chen Yuheng has put a batch of red, pink and coral sunglasses on the shelves in anticipation of the upcoming Valentine's Day overseas. Before the end of this month, his store has already sold more than 7 million yuan.

SHEIN

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