The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Reports flew around China’s financial media last week that ultra fast fashion e-commerce player, Shein, was preparing for an IPO following its latest round of financing, which reportedly tipped the company’s valuation over 300 billion yuan ($46.8 billion), a plan (and valuation) the company has refuted.
A spokesperson told BoF via email that the plan for an IPO remains a longer-term ambition, another one or two years in the future. The spokesperson said the rumoured valuation was inaccurate, but did not disclose the correct amount.
Shein, beloved of Western teens and still relatively unknown in its home country of China, where it was founded in 2008, utilises big data and China’s highly-developed garment manufacturing capabilities to pump out products in record time and ship them cross-border to 220 countries.
Earlier this month, Shein overtook Amazon as the most installed shopping app in the US and in 2020 its estimated revenue was 63.5 billion yuan ($9.93 billion).
With consumers tightening their belts in China, the battle between global fast fashion brands and local high street giants has intensified.
Investors are bracing for a steep slowdown in luxury sales when luxury companies report their first quarter results, reflecting lacklustre Chinese demand.
The French beauty giant’s two latest deals are part of a wider M&A push by global players to capture a larger slice of the China market, targeting buzzy high-end brands that offer products with distinctive Chinese elements.
Post-Covid spend by US tourists in Europe has surged past 2019 levels. Chinese travellers, by contrast, have largely favoured domestic and regional destinations like Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.