7/31/2023 0 Comments Undercover clothing brandHigh-street names like H&M and Zara don’t really compare.” It’s absolutely huge compared to other fast-fashion brands. Iman Amrani, the journalist who led the Untold investigation, tells i: “By combining its knowledge of tech, data and social media with being a fashion brand, it has created this juggernaut, this beast within the industry. This relentless onslaught suggests customers have more than 3,000 new styles to potentially view every day. Shein was contacted for comment by the documentary makers but did not respond on this matter.ĭata published on 6 April by The Business of Fashion showed that in the year to date, Shein had launched 314,877 separate designs in the US market, compared to 18,343 in the same period by Boohoo. “Data is making marketing like a loaded weapon.” “These are behaviours on the website that force you into actions that you might not choose yourself,” he explains. Woods says Shein is “head and shoulders” above other fashion brands in the number of “dark patterns” it uses online. How Shein’s website targets shoppers with ‘dark patterns’Īs well as its “hyper-trendy” designs, cheap prices and prominence on social media, a key factor of Shein’s success is how its aggressive website makes shoppers feel hooked.ĭigital-marketing expert Andy Woods, co-founder of Rouge Media, explains in Untold: Inside the Shein Machine how the company displays countdowns for time-limited deals to create a “feeling of jeopardy” among shoppers afraid to miss out on bargains. Fuelled by people sharing videos of their latest “ #sheinhaul” of purchases on the social media platform, Shein’s share of the UK fast-fashion market was just 3 per cent at the end of 2019 but now stands at 16 per cent. It shot to prominence during Covid-19 lockdowns, boosted by its popularity among young users of another Chinese company that grew quickly in 2020: TikTok. Even some fashion industry insiders remain unsure of how to pronounce its name, saying “Sheen”, “Shane” or “Shine” – it is in fact “She-in”, having originally been called “She Inside”. Many Britons aged 35 and over, especially men, will still never have heard of Shein. One of the Shein garments made in the Guangzhou factories that were filmed undercover (Photo: Zandland/Channel 4) That is nearly eight times more than worldwide figures for Boohoo – itself notorious for previous exposés of worker exploitation by its suppliers in Leicester, which it has been working to address.Įnvironmental campaigners argue that Shein is also worsening the throwaway culture of clothing being shipped halfway around the world but only worn a few times – if at all – before being discarded. Its publicity-shy founder, tech expert Chris Xu, is thought to be worth £5bn.īoosted by celebrity tie-ins and unpaid teenagers recruited as “micro-influencers” with the lure of free clothes, Shein was estimated to have global revenues of $16bn last year. The company is even advertising a 1p “flash sale” of homewares beginning on Sunday. The tiny wages may help explain why Shein was valued at $100bn in April and can sell dresses for £2.49. One of the workers revealing how they are granted no leave or weekends (Photo: Zandland/Channel 4) Those in the second factory have no basic pay, instead receiving 0.27 yuan (3p) for each item they produce. Their first month’s pay was also withheld. To earn a living wage, many stay late into the night to earn commission of 0.14 yuan (2p) per item. The workers in the first factory are paid a base monthly salary of 4,000 yuan (£500) to make a minimum of 500 garments a day. The shirtless man filmed working late into the night in one of the factories (Photo: Zandland/Channel 4)Īsked about when they take time off, one person explains that they work seven days a week, saying: “There’s no such thing as Sundays here.” A man who started work at 8am, but is filmed sitting shirtless at his sewing machine after midnight, says he will not finish until 2am or 3am because he needs to complete his batch. Women in one factory are found to be washing their hair during their lunch breaks, as they have so little spare time outside of their long shifts. The footage has been shared with iahead of Untold: Inside the Shein Machine streaming on All4. The company says it will investigate.Ī woman using the false name of Mei secretly filmed inside two factories where she took on jobs producing the kinds of tops that British shoppers can buy for as little as £1.49. This treatment of workers – who are fined two thirds of their daily wage if they make a single mistake – breaks not only Shein’s code of conduct for suppliers but also Chinese labour laws.
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