Thousands of years ago, Chinese costumes on the Silk Road were popular in the East and West, but with the changes of history, their glory once faded with the glory of the Silk Road. Now, in the new century, SHEIN adheres to the spirit of innovation, bravely assumes the role of a dream-maker, and once again allows the world to witness the power of Chinese fashion and Made in China with advanced digital technology and on-demand production mode.
According to the "Google x Kantar Brandz China Global Brands 2023" list released by Google and Kantar, SHEIN ranks fourth and is the highest-ranked online fashion brand. According to the autumn survey report of investment bank Piper Sandler, SHEIN ranks second among the most popular shopping brands among young Americans and fourth among the most popular clothing brands among young Americans.
The core of SHEIN's subversive achievements in the European and American fashion markets lies in its unique on-demand production of "small single fast reflex" flexible chain model. The so-called "small order quick reaction", that is, to produce different styles of products in small batches, put them into the market for testing in advance, and then quickly return orders and additional orders for popular products according to the market's feedback on new products. Under this model, SHEIN is able to quickly iterate on the style of clothing. According to the report, based on on-demand, SHEIN can reduce the inventory rate of brands to low single digits, while the average unsold inventory of other brands in the industry exceeds 30%.
This efficient first-chain management model has impressed many European and American companies. On October 29, 2023, Authentic Brands Group, a global brand development, marketing and entertainment platform, announced that it will reach a long-term cooperation agreement with SHEIN for the Forever 21 brand. In the future, some of Forever21's casual sportswear, swimwear and other categories will be designed, manufactured and sold by SHEIN. The two sides hold shares each other, and it is SHEIN's small single, fast and flexible on-demand production model that they are interested in. Under this model, digitalization runs through the whole chain of the first chain, penetrating into all aspects from planning, production, channel demand to the organization of the first chain. Jamie Salter, founder and chairman of ABG, said that his company has more than 50 brands and is expected to deepen cooperation with SHEIN in many fields such as furniture and home furnishing in the future.
Immediately afterwards, the British fashion brand Missguided was successfully acquired by SHEIN. According to the cooperation agreement, after the completion of the acquisition, its production and manufacturing will be handed over to SHEIN, and the product design and operation will be handled by the joint venture company established by the two parties. At the same time, the SHEIN platform is responsible for its online sales. In addition, Australian designer brand Alice McCall also reached a cooperation with SHEIN on November 14 of the same year, and will use SHEIN's flexible on-demand ** chain in China for production in the future. Obviously, the small single fast reaction and flexible ** chain have gradually become the advanced industry representatives of the domestic fashion industry to break through the suppression and penetrate the world.
As pointed out in the report "Agile Chain: A New Source of Competitive Advantage in the Fashion Industry" by the famous Boston Consulting Group in the United States, the on-demand production agile chain model represented by SHEIN can help enterprises quickly respond to market changes and achieve a balance between supply and demand, thereby reducing inventory costs, improving capital efficiency, increasing revenue or sharing benefits with customers through more affordable products, and agile chain has become the general trend of the industry.
As the first model of applying the industrial Internet to the apparel industry, SHEIN has become the rule-maker of flexible chain standards and squares, and the flexible and intelligent chain system it has created with China as the core has become an important emerging force to promote the transformation of the global fashion industry.