Fast-fashion Giant Shein Wants to Sell Skincare, Toothpaste

Online fast-fashion retailer Shein is courting brands like toothpaste conglomerate Colgate-Palmolive and toymaker Hasbro as it tries to sell more household names on its platform, Reuters reported.
Known for cheap own-brand clothing and accessories, Shein is moving into other categories and has given brands and retailers access to its platform in nine European countries so far, having done so in the United States, Brazil, and Mexico last year.
The strategy, part of Shein's plan to build credibility and better compete with Amazon, is enabling the business to expand and develop new ways of selling goods ahead of a planned stock market listing later this year.
Shein presented its marketplace services at an event in Madrid last month alongside Colgate-Palmolive, Hasbro , Orangina maker Suntory Beverage & Food, and Spanish cosmetics brand Bella Aurora.
"Everybody associates Shein with fashion, but we are doing all verticals," Christina Fontana, senior director of brand operations for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Shein, told delegates at a conference in Paris on April 17.
Seeing shoppers opening Shein and searching for other brands provided the impetus, Fontana said.
"Our consumers want brands, if that's what they're looking for, that's what we're going to give them."
Fontana, who previously worked for AliBaba, is one of several marketplace experts Shein has poached from the Chinese e-commerce giant and other firms.
That recruitment has helped fuel rapid expansion. Shein had an average 108 million monthly active users in European Union member states in the six months to Jan. 31.
But the company's growth has brought new complications, including new EU rules requiring it to police its platform for illegal or harmful products.
In Europe, Shein's marketplace is so far available in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.
Whether the new marketplaces succeed and enable Shein to compete with Amazon and AliExpress will depend on what brands the company can attract, experts say.
"If Shein wants to compete as a trustworthy reputable marketplace platform, it really needs endorsement from well-known Western brands," said Xiaofeng Wang, e-commerce analyst at Forrester in Singapore.
SUPERCHARGE SALES
In a Zoom webinar aimed at potential sellers in the United States on Thursday, Shein's head of seller marketing Claire Lin pitched an opportunity for brands to reach millions of shoppers and "supercharge" sales, Reuters said.
"Our shopping experience is very sticky, it's very much gamified," she said. "It's fun to shop on our site, so what we see is the minimum shopping time is around eight minutes, well above industry average."
Shein shoppers are Gen Z and millennial, and skew female - with around an 80-20 split of women versus men, Lin said.
Home, electronics, and beauty & health are currently top-performing categories, she said, and the only category Shein does not offer is food and beverages.
The gross merchandise value (total value of products sold) in the home category tripled in 2023, while electronics grew by 2.5 times, and beauty & health grew by 2.1 times, according to a slide shown during the webinar.
Selling directly through a marketplace can provide a significant sales boost for brands. But before doing so, manufacturers typically seek assurances that the marketplace is a good fit for the audience they want to reach, and that they will have control over pricing and promotions.
Shein's platforms have attracted many third-party retailers.
Products from beauty and skincare brands like Caudalie, CeraVe, La Roche-Posay, Shiseido, The Ordinary, Rimmel, and Weleda are currently being sold on Shein's platform in the US, Britain, Brazil, and Mexico via third-party retailers.
Jayn Sterland, UK & Ireland country manager at Weleda, said the Swiss cosmetics brand was not considering selling on Shein directly.
When assessing a marketplace, reputation, perception, and environmental impact are among the key factors the brand looks at, Sterland added, pointing to sustainability initiatives Weleda works on with Amazon, where it sells directly.
Colgate-Palmolive did not reply to a request for comment. A Hasbro spokesperson said the company participated in the Madrid event "to talk generally about the pros and cons of marketplaces".
A Suntory spokesperson said: "We don't sell any of our drinks on Shein's marketplace and we don't have any plans to, this was just an opportunity to share best practice."

The head of fast fashion chain Primark, Paul Marchant, has resigned with immediate effect after he admitted an "error of judgment" towards a woman in a social environment.
Parent-company Associated British Foods said in a statement on Monday that Marchant had accepted his actions fell below the standards expected, and the head of the 14 billion pound conglomerate said he was "immensely disappointed".
Primark has over 450 stores in 17 countries across Europe and the United States, with Marchant growing operating profit from about 250 million pounds to over a billion pounds during his more than 15 years in charge, Reuters reported.
Primark, founded in Ireland and has a huge presence on British high streets, contributes about half of group profit to AB Foods, which also owns major grocery, sugar, agriculture and ingredients businesses.
Shares in the parent company were trading down 3.5% on Monday morning.
"I am immensely disappointed. At ABF, we believe that high standards of integrity are essential," said CEO George Weston.
"Acting responsibly is the only way to build and manage a business over the long term. Colleagues and others must be treated with respect and dignity. Our culture has to be, and is, bigger than any one individual."
The group said that Marchant had cooperated with an investigation led by external lawyers, and acknowledged his "error of judgment".
It said he had apologized to the individual concerned, the group's board and also to his Primark colleagues and others connected to the business.
Eoin Tonge, AB Foods' finance director, will act as Primark chief executive on an interim basis working with the senior Primark management team and Primark's Strategic Advisory Board, while Joana Edwards, AB Foods' financial controller, will act as interim finance director.
"It is, indeed, a very disappointing, to say the least, end for Mr. Marchant and all at Primark and ABF, where he has overseen the development of a fine value-based retailer with strong prospects for growth," said analysts at Shore Capital.
AB Foods said the group would continue to offer support to the individual who brought this behavior to its attention.

Fast-fashion Giant Shein Wants to Sell Skincare, Toothpaste