ReportingA new representative of “ultra fast fashion”, the group is shaking up the codes of a sector already known for its difficult working conditions, by imposing even faster rates on a network of small businesses in southern China.
Bent over his work, armed with a needle bigger than his hand, Shi Xiong, in his fifties, sews the openings of large synthetic canvas bags with a white ribbon. Inside, pajamas packed in transparent plastic bags marked with the logo in black letters: Shein. Installed at the entrance of a garment workshop – three floors of concrete tiled to resist the humidity of southern China – he fills and closes bags, twelve hours or more a day, six days a week, to about 5,000 yuan (700 euros) per month. “This week, I work from 9 am to 1 am to finish orders”, he said with a sigh.
Paid by the piece, he has no social coverage whatsoever. “I never signed a contract with the boss”, says Mr. Shi. Once closed, the bags leave every evening from this district in the south of Canton to a large warehouse north of Foshan, an industrial city adjoining the capital of Guangdong. There, other workers separate the items, distribute them according to orders, fill boxes of dresses, T-shirts and jeans that will be sent by plane, before landing in the wardrobes of young Western girls.
Thanks to an exceptional logistical organization, a few tax loopholes and a very flexible approach to labor law, the Chinese ready-to-wear start-up Shein has become, in a few years, a multinational which overshadows companies. giants of the sector. The heavyweights of fast fashion H&M and Zara witnessed, dumbfounded, the rise to power of this rival which pushes even further the recipes that have made their success: a catalog in permanent renewal, lower prices and a communication that has knew how to appropriate the codes of social networks to target young people, mainly women under 25.
Average cost of an item: 7 euros
Reinforced by a Covid-19 pandemic that kept customers out of physical stores, Shein became, in 2021, the most visited fashion site in the world, but above all the most downloaded online shopping application in the States -United and in about fifty countries, ahead of Amazon. On the application of short videos TikTok, the brand appears regularly: we see “influencers” opening boxes full of clothes, before parading in front of the camera, dressed in each article. Average cost of a garment on the site: 7 euros, but delivery is free from 39 euros. According to the American bank Morgan Stanley, in Europe, only Primark is able to compete with Shein on the prices of jeans, dresses and T-shirts.
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