Every few minutes a newly finished garment is added to mounds of leopard-print skirts, winter coats and polyester fluorescent tank tops in a factory in Panyu, southern China. Each has been made at the behest of a single retailer: Shein.
The scene is repeated in thousands of workshops in Panyu’s garment-making district, the heart of Shein’s retail empire. Garments from each teetering pile will go to one of its nearby warehouses, then by truck to a Guangzhou airport and on to a cargo flight. Soon a distribution network thousands of miles away in Europe or the US will fulfil an online order by whisking the clothes to a young shopper’s doorstep.
Speed is of the essence. “It’s never easy dealing with Shein orders. We have to finish within seven days, which means we often have to work overtime,” said a factory manager supervising a largely female workforce.