San Francisco, NFAPost: Fashion ecommerce app Shein overtook Amazon on May 11 as the most downloaded shopping app on iOS and Android in the United States, according to data from app tracking firm App Annie.
The Chinese fashion app is headquartered in eastern Nanjing Province and started its operation in 2008. It also opened offices in other major Chinese cities as well as the US, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates.
The uniqueness of Shein as a fashion ecommerce brand is that it controls its own production chain, from design and prototype to procurement to manufacturing. Despite reaching over $15 billion in valuation, Shein kept low profile throughout its journey.
The app, dubbed the “TikTok for e-commerce” by China-focused internet analyst Matthew Brennan in this thorough piece on the startup, manufactures in China as many apparel retailers do.
The fashion platform is banking on technology in its each business unit so that customer satisfaction is brought with much care. It heavy dependency on digital technology allows the company to churn out hundreds of new products tailored to different regions and user tastes at a daily rate.
The strategy is not unlike TikTok matching content creators with users by using algorithms to understand their habits in real-time. On May 17 the app took the top spot on iOS as well. It briefly topped the Android chart in late April. As of May 17, Shein was the top iOS shopping app in 54 countries and ranked top in the category on Android devices across 13 countries.
The company was previously named “She Inside”. On its official website, it describes itself as an “international B2C fast fashion e-commerce platform” founded in 2008.
According to analysts, Shein investors are Capital Nuts, JAFCO Asia, Greenwoods Asset Management, IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Tiger Global, and Xiaomi founder’s Shunwei Capital.
(The above story is based on a Techcrunch report)
