According to Sina Technology, citing Reuters, Chinese fashion retailer Shein is restarting plans to list in New York this year, which is expected to accelerate the IPO process.
If the initial public offering (IPO) is finally completed, it will be the first major equity transaction for a domestic company in the United States since July.
In response, Shein's official spokesperson said the report was untrue, the company currently had no listing plans, and refused to disclose specific revenue data.
Although there is no news and plans to confirm the listing, the attention of the outside world to this company is not low.
Blessed by top institutions, a phenomenon-level fast fashion unicorn
Shein is a phenomenon-level representative of fast fashion, shipping to more than 220 countries and territories from its numerous global warehouses, and the United States has become Shein's largest market. Its main investors include JAP Asia, IDG Capital, Jinglin Investment, Sequoia China, Tiger Global and Shunwei Capital.
Founded in 2008, Shein has become one of the largest fast fashion companies in the world.
Against the backdrop of the rapid development of online shopping during COVID. In 2020, according to Coresight Research, SHEIN expects sales in 2020 to grow 250 percent from the previous year to $10 billion, adding more than 2,000 items to its website each week.
Shein's valuation has increased dramatically every year due to soaring sales. In January 2019, Shein raised $500 million from Sequoia China and Tiger Global at a $5 billion company valuation.
In August 2020, according to CB Insights, the company's investors, including Sequoia Capital China, IDG Capital and Tiger Global, were valued at nearly $15 billion in this final round of funding. According to Bloomberg, Shein has hired Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to take charge of the IPO.
Shein had planned an IPO in the U.S. two years ago, when it was reported that Shein would go public in the U.S. as soon as the fourth quarter of 2020, raising at least $700 million. But it is understood that its plans have been shelved, in part due to some external factors.
In response, a Shein spokesperson said that the company currently has no plans to go public. In May last year, Shein also said in a statement that the company has no plans to conduct an IPO in the short term.
But for now, it's unclear how much shein plans to raise from the IPO. Its spokesman said that as a private company, it did not disclose financial data.
Harvest overseas Generation Z, how to do downloads beat Amazon?
According to the latest data released by app analytics platform Apptopia, Shein once again surpassed Amazon in the global shopping app download rankings, ranking second.
Previously, in May 2021, Shein had replaced Amazon, and Apple's iOS platform in 54 countries and regions around the world and Android platform in 13 countries and regions became the number one shopping app.
Shein started out as a wedding dress business, shipping Tiger Hill's finished wedding dresses to the United States to sell and running a lot of ads on Google and Facebook. With the traffic dividend of these two platforms, as well as the market spread, get a lot of profit.
In 2011, SheIn expanded from the category of wedding dresses to women's clothing and skirts, and the purchase point also became the thirteen-line wholesale market in Guangzhou, and began to try to use Internet celebrities to promote on social networking sites.
Now, it has nearly 300 million followers on overseas social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, with more than 30 million annual active users and an average of more than 100 million new registered users per year.
Shein relies on the strong industrial chain discourse power built over the years, and also creates a price advantage through market differences. With more than 600,000 products on its platform, the average unit price is only $7.90. The data shows that only Two companies, Primark in Europe and Forever 21 in the United States, can always match the price.
Shein founder Xu Yangtian was an SEO expert before starting his business. In 2015, in addition to polishing its own supply chain system, Shein also won the domain name of SheInside.com, established an independent official website, and created its own APP in the beginning of the mobile Internet era.
This is also the real secret to beating Amazon, according to the Guojin Securities Research Report, Shein's mobile App traffic accounted for 72%, significantly better than other fast fashion companies in the same category. On the Web side, Similar Web data shows that Shein is higher than any major U.S. fashion brand, with a bounce rate of less than 40 percent.
Shein has built its own APP and official website to help it operate independently and establish its own traffic pool, and in marketing, SheIn has directly given European and American e-commerce companies a "dimensionality reduction blow" through the business model of "content + KOL", which has been successfully verified repeatedly.
Competitors have the advantage of being a latecomer, can Shein build a high moat?
However, shein's rapid development, after its faster, newer, more, cheaper, but also hidden FMCG brand inherent problems. In addition to the problems of too sunken brands, poor quality of goods, and lack of environmental protection, Shein also has to face many competitors.
For example, in November last year, taka original, a fashion brand, received tens of millions of yuan of angel round investment, and Ali also recently launched an APP called "allyLikes".
As more and more cross-border e-commerce go to sea to dig for gold, it remains to be seen whether Shein's price advantage in the supply chain can give it a stable profit margin, and the traffic on social platforms also needs to be maintained through more and better products. In addition, Shein will also consider facing a slowdown in growth after COVID subsides.
In fact, the giant wants to copy a new SheIn also has certain advantages. In this regard, Shein is working hard to form its own brand culture, pursuing higher growth rates and greater exposure.
In 2021, Shein invited American reality TV star Kloe Kardashian and fashion magazine InStyle style director Laurel Pantin as judges at the "Shein X 100K" design challenge, which is not only a pursuit of fashion traffic, but also a search for industry recognition.
After a round of high growth, it is important for Shein to have a clear future planning and development path. While maintaining the industrial chain, Shein will also need to seriously consider how fast fashion can start from "fashion" after its "fast" and exert brand effect, which may be the key to further enhancing its influence.