The Chinese fashion brand Shein returns to Barcelona after the failure of its first store. This June, the ultra-low-cost clothing chain opened a showroom in the Catalan capital for two weeks and caused great disappointment among its clients (the majority were young girls). Shoppers couldn’t take the clothes home, only try them on and buy them online, sparking a barrage of criticism.
Four months later, he returns to the city on Saturday, November 19, this time, with a store in use, where you can buy clothes, but only until Black Friday passes. From Shein they explain that they have no intention of changing their business model, based on massive sales over the internet, and that they will only open ephemeral stores, like the one they have launched in Barcelona now. This new incursion into the city also puts pressure on local businesses at the gates of a key sales campaign. “We are concerned that they open on these dates because it is impossible to compete on price with them; and people on Black Friday look for discounts,” business sources have acknowledged to this newspaper.
Shein’s irruption in the textile industry has caused a small earthquake. The group, founded by the enigmatic Chinese businessman Chris Xu, does not share financial information, but markets and consultancies follow it closely and verify its meteoric evolution. Credit Suisse estimates that the firm billed 16,000 million dollars in 2021 and this year it could exceed 24,000 million. If the forecasts come true, it would surpass H
In Spain, Shein went from being used by 1.1% of online fashion buyers in 2019 to 3.4% in 2020 and 6.8% in 2021, indicates the latest Modaes report with Kantar. It is already above the German Zalando, with a penetration of 6.5% last year. Amazon is at 12.2%. The three operators together have a 38.7% online fashion business share in the country, although there is a substantial difference between them: while Amazon and Zalando act as distribution platforms, Shein is also a manufacturer of its own clothing. From April 2021 to April 2022, its sales have grown by 96% in Spain, while Zalando has grown by 28%, although the latter advanced a lot the previous year, Kantar data indicates. In the United States, it has surpassed Amazon as the most downloaded shopping app, according to a Sensor Tower analysis.
A growth, in any case, wrapped in controversy. Environmental organizations criticize that Shein is an exponent of the wildest fast fashion, of the massive manufacture of clothing at ultra-cheap prices, in the midst of a climate emergency. She has also received complaints about alleged extreme labor practices in her factories.
Issues that did not seem to concern the clients who came to the ephemeral store that Shein opened in June in Barcelona or Madrid. Many young women had been waiting since five in the morning to be the first to enter the establishment and in Madrid the police had to intervene before the crowd that was generated, with shoving and shouting among customers.
Something close to the fan phenomenon, and at the same time, contradictory to the current times. Young people are the most environmentally conscious generation, but while some dirty works of art to warn about the ecological crisis, others buy at Shein or any other low-cost brand, betting on throwaway. This Saturday, the Chinese firm passes a new litmus test in Barcelona.
