Shein: Revolutionising Fashion Retail by Meeting Customer Expectations

Meeting customer expectations is challenging in the fast-paced fashion world, where trends change as quickly as the seasons. However, Shein, an e-commerce giant, has revolutionised the fashion retail landscape by effectively catering to its customers' ever-evolving demands. With its innovative business model, extensive product range, affordable pricing, and commitment to customer satisfaction, Shein has emerged as a frontrunner in the industry.

Shein uses its proprietary tools along with Google trends to figure out what styles are trending through search and social media. These trends then go to its team of 800 designers, who create designs based on the styles. Designs are created within 36 hours.

Shein creates small batches of products - as small as ten pieces- and then puts them on their site. Then, using AI, they can track behaviours such as browsing product details, the number of add-to carts, and how long people spend on a particular product. All their 3000 suppliers are given access to Shein's ERP platform, which allows them to see in real-time what products are being clicked on the most, then instantly create more of those. This real-time model reduces the time from design to finished product to 3 days and drastically reduces excess waste.

To give some context, their nearest competitor, Zara, takes five weeks, and that's considered fast.

There is fast fashion, and then there is supersonic fashion.

Shein adds over 1000 new styles every single day in over 220 countries! To put this into context, Zara adds 300 per month. In reality, Shein is an optimisation machine that ingests what we like, feeds us more, and does it locally. There is a second algorithm that weighs how deep the actions are of a user on a site - a product with more viewing time has a higher weighting than one which people merely clicked on for 2 seconds. This then leads to the user being shown similar products. Due to our browsing data, you and I could go on Shein and be shown drastically different products. If this hyper-personalisation sounds very similar, it's because another super app launched in China has the same thing.

TikTok.

It's no surprise why Shein has been called The TikTok of commerce. Whether you love them or hate them—and there are many reasons to hate them—you can't deny that they're building the future of commerce. Commerce is moving from a human-designed POV to what the machines tell us. That's generally where consumption moves; when there is so much choice, let the algorithms decide.

There will be no need for human curation.

In conclusion, Shein has redefined the fashion retail landscape by effectively meeting customer expectations through innovation, inclusivity, affordability, convenience, and sustainability. By staying ahead of trends, embracing diversity, offering competitive pricing, providing a seamless shopping experience, leveraging social media, and prioritising sustainability, Shein has cemented its position as a leader in the industry. As consumer preferences continue to evolve, Shein remains committed to adapting and innovating to meet the needs and desires of its global audience, ensuring continued success and growth in the dynamic world of fashion retail.

If your business would like help navigating customer experience in 2024, get in contact with us to discuss further: experience@yourcxc.com