Trend | The Fast-Fashion from China is Spreading from Online to Offline

On Lincoln Road in Miami, the United States, a long line of young girls lined up almost from the street to the end. Under the scorching sun, these girls were in groups, some holding their mobile phones to check their favorite products on the Internet, some taking selfies with their friends in front of the store, and some being excited to broadcast live to their TikTok fans.

The store they are waiting for, called Shein, was born in faraway China. This European and American fast fashion women's clothing store is full of clothes of various colors, styles, and designs. Most of the same type of clothing costs between $5-20, which is only half of ZARA.

When the girls carrying Shein paper bags in both hands were asked if they knew Shein was an e-commerce brand from China, they replied in surprise, "Really? I can’t tell at all. Almost all of my friends are buying."

This fast-fashion website from China with the largest share in the world has been testing offline stores through pop-up stores around the world in recent years, launching an offensive towards physical retail. And Miami is their latest stop.

The grand occasion of Shein offline stores overseas can not help but remind people of the popular scene when the American girl brand Brandy Melville first entered China. But now, when young people in China are enthusiastic about BM, young people from overseas are caught in a fashion trend called Shein.

Why is Shein's pop store so popular?

Shein’s offline pop-up stores are booming, on the one hand, because of the popularity and reputation that Shein has accumulated through online social marketing and cost-effective products over the years, and on the other hand, because of their pop-up store marketing strategies. As always, it accurately captures the preferences of consumers.

In response to the fact that some customers were unable to enter the store due to the excessive number of people in the pop-up store, and the conflicts in the line, Shein introduced a reservation system in the Miami store. As a result, more than 3000 reservations were made within two hours. Chime for sale. During the three days when the pop-up store opened, approximately 125 people entered the store every hour to spend.

The style of the pop-up store is very close to young people and incorporates a lot of social elements. There is a big Shein pink logo hung in the store, colorful neon lights illuminate the lobby, clouds hanging from the ceiling, and tropical plants to set off the atmosphere of Miami.

Unlike common fast fashion stores, Shein, which started as a social platform, also embodies his style of Internet e-commerce everywhere. Before the opening, Shein specially set up VIP Night, inviting social platform bloggers, local celebrities, media, etc. to participate, pre-heating the pop-up store activities.

The store has set up a special photo zone and prepared various photo props for girls to upload on social platforms. The full-length mirror and the window bring #SheinTryOnHaul, #MeetSHEIN topics, and there are also special photo-taking machines, free drinks, and food, and even DJs on the spot to make the girls not only buy fun but also have fun.

At the same time, the promotion methods are dazzling, extending the e-commerce gameplay to offline. The most attractive part of the Shein website is that there are many fashionable styles of clothes, but the price is very low. At the same time, it is equipped with the strategy of "sending ten thousand coupons", full reduction on all platforms, and free return and exchange. Many consumers often do buy dozens of products in one go.

The pop-up store also continues Shein's "crazy promotion" feature. Not only can consumers match their online coupon codes to offline use, but they can also get free gifts, cosmetic bags, etc. after spending a certain amount of money. At the same time, various small activities to obtain shopping vouchers have been set up, such as participating in a 2-5 minute survey to have a chance to win a SHEIN gift card worth $150.

Pop-up shops fully integrate local characteristics and refuse to be the same. Shein will incorporate some local features in pop-up stores everywhere. For example, in the pop-up store in Miami, Shein blends with the characteristics of the seaside city, sets up a shell chair photo zone, and places palm leaves in the store. Free food Drinks have elements of the sea.

For clothes on the shelves in offline stores, the most popular seasonal products on the platform will be selected according to the opening season. In the latest two pop-up stores this year, Shein has simultaneously put on the shelves some of the Shein X series, high-quality series MOTF, and some products under her own beauty brand Sheglam, which she collaborated with emerging designers.

Tested pop stores globally

Shein went from a little-known Chinese manufacturer to the world's most popular e-commerce fashion website with a valuation of 15 billion U.S. dollars, and it only took less than 6 years.

In previous articles by Silicon Stars, we reported that Shein has become the most popular fashion website for overseas girls to shop and buy, and it has also become the wealth code of contemporary Internet celebrities. Now, Shein's territory is not just expanding online, it is beginning to try to break through the shackles of the Internet and move towards people's daily life.

Starting from the opening of the first offline pop-up store in New York in 2018, in recent years, Shein has started to test offline stores around the world and has already covered Austin, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Delhi, India, Mexico City, Paris and Lyon, London, and other places. Although Shien pop-up shops only stayed for a few days every time they went there, they all set off a fanatical pursuit of local girls.

For example, this is Shein's pop-up store opened in Paris in September 2019. Paris girls who are very "picky" about fashion are willing to line up in front of Shein's store.

This is Shein's pop-up store in Dallas, the USA before the outbreak in November 2019. The store is crowded with girls and the girls were all lining up for shopping.

Although the outbreak of the epidemic at the beginning of 2020 stopped offline activities for a while, Shein’s pop-up stores in Los Angeles and Las Vegas still attracted many consumers, and everyone was wearing masks in long lines, risking the risk of the epidemic. Also, go into the store and make a big purchase.

Recently, because of the popularization of vaccines and the full restart of the economy, Shein's offline pop-up stores have begun to accelerate. In June and July of this year, Shein opened pop-up stores in Tempe, Arizona, and Miami. During the epidemic, Shein online users exploded, which also expanded the influence of these two offline stores again.

The girls ran around after learning the news of the store opening, and they all asked their friends to find out. According to TikTok blogger Rachel llanos, in order to be able to go to Shein’s pop-up store, she deliberately got up at 8:30 early and went to line up. She thought she was early enough. I didn’t expect that there was already a long queue before that time. She and her friends had been waiting until 2:30 in the afternoon to enter the shop smoothly.

Overseas e-commerce enters a new stage

From Shein's attempt to deploy offline stores, we can see that, as the hottest cross-border e-commerce company, the pioneers on the track have begun to enter a new stage.

After just a few years of development, Shein's online users and sales have far surpassed traditional fast fashion brands such as ZARA, H&M, and Uniqlo. Now, offline retail, the last piece of these brands, also seems to need to be prepared to be divided among the new era FMCG brands represented by Shein.

When traditional fast fashion brands such as ZARA were forced to undergo digital transformation by the Internet era, Shein seized the characteristics and opportunities of the Internet era to achieve a perfect corner overtaking and winning a large number of young users. When Shein has already occupied the throne of e-commerce fashion "boss" and the increase in users of online platforms may slow down, Shein will face a new question: Where will the brand develop next?

In my opinion, there are roughly two roads in front of Shein.

The first is to continue to expand and strengthen the e-commerce platform, and gradually transform from fashion clothing to all categories. The latest research on young American consumer trends released by the American research institute Piper Sandler in 2021 shows that Shein has become the most popular e-commerce website for young Americans after Amazon.

At present, in addition to the initial women's clothing on Shein's website, various daily consumer products such as beauty makeup and accessories, household products, pet supplies, etc. have also begun to be put on shelves in some countries. Backed by China's low-cost and efficient supply chain system, many similar products can even "crush" Amazon in price, becoming a new choice for consumers.

At the same time, Shein has also tried to launch joint series with external designers and brands in the past two years, and the boundaries of the brand have continued to expand outward. This means that in the future we will see more types of products and designs on Shein, and it is not impossible for it to further develop into a world-class e-commerce platform.

The second path is to seize the characteristics of fast fashion and build a fast fashion brand with world influence. In the last stage of fast fashion development, ZARA from Spain, H&M from Sweden, and Uniqlo from Japan have all completed worldwide consumption popularization, and Shein is equivalent to doing ZARA and H&M in the new era.

In the future, we are likely to see Shein's offline stores in shopping malls all over the world. Like ZARA today, Shein can also launch different types of products and services such as home series, beauty series, and accessories series around the characteristics of fast fashion. In terms of marketing methods, Shein's online and offline linkages will be stronger than the old brands in the past, and at the same time, it will launch different consumption models based on the characteristics of young people in the new era. And this path, from the current pop-up store, Shein is constantly testing the water, we may also be able to glimpse one or two.

It seems that Shein has tried both ways and achieved good results. No matter what path Shein chooses next, it seems to have become the first fashion consumer brand from China with global influence.