Inside Shein, the fast-fashion giant extolling ‘the future of retail’

There is one thing you absolutely cannot get wrong when trying to sell clothes on Shein.

“It’s all about the first image. It’s all about photography, because that’s your storefront,” says Tara Skene Haygarth, Shein’s first director of product in Australia.

“That will get the click-through, which will get the conversion rate. If you don’t have great photography … you don’t really get the sales.”

Skene Haygarth is steering the Chinese-founded fast-fashion retailer’s latest initiative Down Under: Aralina, the first house brand designed by Australians and manufactured by Shein. The launch of Aralina has provided the first glimpse inside the local machinations of the US$50 billion ($78 billion) global behemoth that fosters a competitive internal culture among hundreds of in-house brands to stimulate sales.

It’s a bid to “bring the Australian lifestyle to the northern hemisphere” – a marketing exercise to sell beachy, relaxed vibes to online shoppers from the US, Europe and the Middle East.

Billed as “feminine”, “flowy” and “dainty”, the new products are designed, photographed and released for sale every week. Models posing on the sand are photographed wearing pieces selling for as little as $8.

Aralina’s approach to product photography, shot beachside rather than in the studio, is necessary to distinguish itself from hundreds of other labels produced by Shein.

“It’s all very competitive,” says Skene Haygarth. “It’s really about having such a unique point of view with the creative art direction, the way you shoot … So it is tough, but it’s all just about performance, too.”

Getting cut-through is key to success at Shein. Its model of mass production – the company is estimated to have as many as 600,000 items for sale at any given time – depends on a perpetual cycle of trendy styles.

Part of the strategy is to design as much as possible and see what sticks. A Shein product typically isn’t sold for more than 90 days. A team of seven designers is behind the Aralina label, which spans swimwear, resortwear, activewear, sleepwear, casual wear, and a curve collection.

“We really have the scale under the Shein Group,” says Skene Haygarth.

“Obviously, [the] Australia [market] is there, but it’s the smallest part, really, of the business because the customers are northern hemisphere.”

After joining the business in June last year, Skene Haygarth says she had to learn an entirely new business model and way of working. “It’s so ahead of where Australian retail is, but it really is the future of retail.”

Tara Skene-Haygarth, director of Shein’s new Australian brand Aralina.

Industry impact

For as many fans as there are of Shein’s low-cost offerings, there are critics of the manufacturing model’s impact on the local fashion industry and the environment.

Shein launched into the Australian market in 2021. By 2023, sales hit almost $1 billion, making it one of the biggest clothing sellers in the country.

While it has collaborated with Australian designer Alice McCall and an Australian student designer, its growth in the domestic market has also been linked to the struggles of local players from Dion Lee to Jeanswest. It has come under fire for infringing the trademark of one of The Iconic’s in-house labels.

Australian Fashion Council chief executive Jaana Quaintance-James says Shein’s scale and speed create intense competition, particularly for smaller brands that can’t match its volume and aggressive pricing strategies.

“By copying designs at a rapid pace and flooding the market with low-cost versions, companies like Shein fundamentally undercut Australian designers, who are investing in this market and employing local people,” she says.

Quaintance-James and this masthead are not suggesting that Aralina has copied designs.

“It’s really sad that some retailers and brands are not really able to keep afloat and keep moving forward, because some of them are absolutely incredible,” says Skene Haygarth.

“Everyone’s shopping online. The way I knew retail 10 years ago doesn’t even really exist any more. No one’s doing catalogues. Stores are an experience, and it’s a different model to an online tech-based business.”

Designs on demand

Aralina has already sold 250,000 items around the world, 15 per cent of which are from the Curve collection, since it launched. Only about 10 to 15 per cent of Aralina items have gone back into production.

Internally, Shein has set a high bar for its designers through its on-demand production model, which Skene Haygarth says is part of the company’s sustainability efforts.

This model, which has been at the heart of Shein’s business since its inception, allows Shein to “test and learn” in real time by producing small quantities of each product. Shein will produce more stock, or “rebuy”, when demand hits an undisclosed threshold. It’s what allows the company to keep prices low for customers and respond to trends at a rapid pace.

Skene Haygarth says this model means there is “no real waste at the front end”, given the company does not run the risk of sitting on unwanted inventory, by producing only what consumers demand.

“The on-demand model really isn’t spoken about,” says Skene Haygarth. “I feel like for us, the operating model is quite sustainable.”

Courtney Holm, a former fashion designer and founder of Circular Sourcing, says the on-demand model is “very clever”, pointing out many small businesses use a similar model, albeit on a smaller scale.

However, Holm says low-waste claims need to be viewed in the context of the total volume of clothing being produced – while it may eliminate overproduction of a finished piece of clothing, it doesn’t curtail large amounts of fabric waste produced by the fashion industry.

“Fabric is not made on demand. There are minimum order quantities, and there are typically huge amounts of excess fabrics left over from production because of this, and this is pervasive across the industry,” said Holm.

Shein packages waiting to be shipped in a workshop in Guangzhou.Credit: The New York Times

Can fast fashion and sustainability co-exist?

Since its inception in 2008, the Chinese-founded company has faced allegations regarding its ethical and environmental practices, such as greenwashing, overproduction, poor work conditions, and the use of slave and child labour.

Shein’s own sustainability report revealed the company’s carbon emissions had almost tripled in three years, making it the biggest polluter in the fashion industry.

It has sought to shake off criticisms by billing itself as environmentally minded and has outlined efforts to implement sustainable practices in its business model, primarily through an initiative called EvoluShein by Design. Shein has committed millions to initiatives tackling environmental waste, has pledged to use 31 per cent recycled polyester by 2030, and uses deadstock fabric in a small percentage of its clothing.

“Sustainability is a journey, it’s not a destination,” says Skene Haygarth. “I feel we’re doing our part to make a real difference.”

Shein confirmed only 8 per cent of the current Aralina collection is made from “responsibly sourced” fibres, primarily relating to viscose, which comes from “verified responsible sourcing practices that minimise risk to ancient and endangered forests”. Shein aims to bring this to 20 per cent by the end of the year.

The rest of the collection is made from fibres such as polyester, with a few cotton and linen pieces. While viscose, or rayon, is derived from plant fibres, it is not inherently sustainable due to the significant consumption of water, energy and chemicals involved in its production, posing risks to workers and the environment.

Shein says while some viscose may be made in closed-loop systems (which minimise its environmental impact), it cannot provide details on what percentage of its viscose is produced this way – or provide total traceability for all of its fabrics.

Holm is wary of “conscious collections” or phrases like “responsible fibres”, which she says can be examples of greenwashing. “These phrases are kind of thrown around, but what do they actually mean?”

Quaintance-James doesn’t believe responsibly sourced materials or on-demand production can address the broader issue of hyper-consumption.

“Sustainability and ethics are inherently at odds with the ultra-fast fashion model, which prioritises speed, mass production and low costs over long-term environmental and social impacts,” she says.

Indeed, Holm says sustainability should be about fashion’s entire life cycle. Last year, a report from The Australia Institute revealed Australia to be the world’s biggest fashion consumers, with over 200,000 tonnes of clothing ending up in landfill each year. The Institute called for a change to our shopping habits, and the cheap, mass-produced clothing it said contributed to textile waste.

Skene Haygarth believes Aralina’s pieces will stand the test of time.

“We have really focused on quality and not just disposable fashion,” she says.

“We love detail and great workmanship … I’ve got some [pieces] as well. I wear them. I love them, and it’s not just single-use, it’s something that I know I’ll have in my wardrobe for a couple of years. So I don’t feel like it’s any different to purchasing anywhere else.”

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