The ascent of Chinese group Shein — set to become the world’s largest fast-fashion specialist retailer — has spawned imitators looking to profit from Gen Z’s growing appetite for cheap clothing.Chinese ecommerce group Pinduoduo and ByteDance, owner of the popular short-video app TikTok, have launched Shein-like platforms in recent months — Temu and If Yooou, respectively.
Shein has rapidly become the brand of choice for young women in the US and Europe, attracted by the vast array of clothes and accessories at bargain prices that are shipped from Shein’s warehouses in China.
It was valued at just over $100bn at its last fundraising round in April, making it at the time the world’s third-most valuable private company behind Elon Musk’s SpaceX and ByteDance.