Earlier this year, we commissioned the economic advisory firm, Oxford Economics, to work with us to measure SHEIN’s economic impact in some of our most important markets in the European Union (EU) – France, Italy, and Poland. Our aim was to gain a better understanding of SHEIN’s footprint in the EU today to guide our planning for SHEIN’s next phase of growth and investment in this important region.
The EU is one of SHEIN’s largest and most important regions. On average every month, over 100 million people across the EU engage with our platform [1].
We are growing our SHEIN team in the EU as part of our localisation strategy to get closer to our customers, our stakeholders, and our communities in the markets where we operate. Alongside our EMEA headquarters in Ireland, SHEIN now has offices in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain. We also operate distribution and fulfilment centres in Wroclaw, Poland, and Stradella, Italy, that have created thousands of local jobs and we continue to invest in growing our footprint.
The report by Oxford Economics, The Economic Impact of SHEIN in the EU, underlines SHEIN’s growing contribution to the EU. It shows that in 2023, SHEIN’s operations in France, Italy, and Poland:
Supported more than 6,100 jobs in the EU, both directly and indirectly
- In addition to the direct creation of jobs in functions such as analytics, website management and warehouse operations, SHEIN’s spending with local service providers in the EU supported more than 6,100 workers, including the business, professional services, real estate, transportation and storage sectors. Across the EU, SHEIN works with over 40 last mile delivery service providers to fulfil SHEIN orders and deliver them to customers. EU intermediary agencies and EU airlines also benefit from the logistics and delivery needs of SHEIN for the 150 markets in which SHEIN products are sold around the world.
Contributed EUR1.1bn to EU GDP in 2023 through business operations and activities in France, Italy, and Poland.
- Nearly half of this economic impact was generated by SHEIN’s own retail and wholesale operations in France, Italy, and Poland, while the rest can be attributed to the economic activity supported among its local service providers in the EU and the wage spending of those employed. The sectors benefiting most from SHEIN’s operations in the EU were local enterprises in the business, professional services and real estate sectors, followed by transportation and storage, and the wider wholesale and retail sectors.
Empowering European Designers and Brands to Grow Their Online Businesses with SHEIN
- In line with the EU’s digitalisation strategy, and in particular its digital retail agenda, SHEIN’s flagship initiatives, SHEIN X and the SHEIN Marketplace, are enabling more European creators and businesses to establish and scale their businesses online. To date, more than 600 artists and designers from the EU have joined the SHEIN X programme, accounting for nearly 15% of the over 4,500 creative talents who participate in the program around the world. In a global survey of around 150 SHEIN X designers and artists, we found a strong sense that those collaborating with SHEIN in this space felt the benefits of increased customer access and visibility, with eight in 10 designers reporting that SHEIN X enabled them to expand their reach to a wider audience. While still nascent in the EU, SHEIN’s marketplace platform, which enables local brands and sellers to engage with SHEIN’s large and growing customer base, is also empowering local businesses to expand their reach online. Oxford Economics’ report highlights that MSMEs in the EU’s fashion retail sector often face structural constraints to digitalisation, such as a lack of know-how and expertise, and the lack of resources to overcome it. With its Marketplace platform, SHEIN is working to help local businesses overcome these constraints and grow and thrive online.
Guided by these findings, and the success of our localisation strategy to date, SHEIN continues to invest in expanding our footprint in Europe and contributing to the local economy.
We have also committed EUR10 million to a new program to identify, support and develop emerging European design talent, with a target of onboarding 250 European designers over the next five years for the SHEIN X Designer Incubator Program. SHEIN X allows designers to do what they do best — create — while SHEIN handles the manufacturing, marketing and retail. Designers can reach a global audience, share in the profits from sales, and keep ownership of their creations.
We are also expanding our Marketplace offering to more European sellers. We now have dedicated teams across Europe focused on helping more local brands and sellers to benefit from the reach and scale of SHEIN’s platform, with plans for more initiatives to make it even easier for European MSMEs to scale and grow with SHEIN. To learn more about SHEIN’s economic impact in the EU and download country-specific reports, visit the Oxford Economics website here.
[1] From 1 February 2024 to 31 July 2024. We define a ‘monthly active user’ as the number of unique users who have engaged with the SHEIN platform at least once during a given month, regardless of whether they are a registered account holder or just a visitor. Source: https://shein.ltwebstatic.com/advertise/shein/eur/SHEIN_transparency_report-No4.pdf
