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Fast Fashion Retailer Shein’s UK Sales Surged to $2.8 Billion in 2024

People walk inside of the Shein office building in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China April 16, 2025. (Reuters)
People walk inside of the Shein office building in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China April 16, 2025. (Reuters)
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Fast Fashion Retailer Shein’s UK Sales Surged to $2.8 Billion in 2024

People walk inside of the Shein office building in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China April 16, 2025. (Reuters)
People walk inside of the Shein office building in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China April 16, 2025. (Reuters)

Shein's British business made 2.05 billion pounds ($2.77 billion) in sales in 2024, a 32.3% increase from the previous year, a filing by the online fast-fashion retailer showed early on Friday.

Shein does not report global results publicly, but the filing sheds light on its growth in Britain, its third-biggest market after the United States and Germany, as the company works toward an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

Founded in China and headquartered in Singapore, Shein has spent years attempting to list, first in New York and then in London, but faced criticism from US and UK politicians and failed to get approval from China's securities regulator for the offshore IPO at a time of increasing tensions between China and the US.

The global retailer's UK business, Shein Distribution UK Ltd, reported a pretax profit of 38.25 million pounds in 2024, up 56.6% from 24.4 million pounds in 2023.

In the filing, Shein highlighted 2024 milestones, such as a pop-up shop in Liverpool, a Christmas bus tour across 12 UK cities and the opening of two new offices in Kings Cross and Manchester.

Known for deeply discounted prices, Shein runs constant promotions and offers coupons or rewards that encourage shoppers to keep buying. Shein has taken market share from retailers like ASOS and H&M as surging inflation dented consumers' spending power, driving them to hunt for bargains.

Shein has also broadened its offering beyond fashion — the UK site sells 7.99-pound ($10.84) dresses and 15-pound ($20.36) jeans, as well as everything from toys and craft supplies to storage units.

Shein's business has benefited from customs duty exemptions on low-value e-commerce packages that allow it to send goods directly from factories in China to shoppers' doorsteps largely tariff-free.

But that perk is on its way out, driving Shein's costs — and prices — up, particularly in the US, where imports from China are now subject to steep tariffs.

US President Donald Trump's administration has scrapped its "de minimis" exemption for parcels under $800, and the European Union plans to remove its equivalent duty waiver on e-commerce parcels worth less than 150 euros.

Britain is also reviewing its policy on low-value imports after retailers said it was giving online players like Shein and Temu an unfair advantage.

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Fashion

A Nonprofit in France Is Fighting Fast-Fashion Waste, One Sneaker at a Time

Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)
Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)
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A Nonprofit in France Is Fighting Fast-Fashion Waste, One Sneaker at a Time

Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)
Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)

Hundreds of used sneakers arrive each week at a workshop east of Paris, where workers inspect them and ask a simple question: Can a shoe be saved?

The nonprofit SneakCœurZ is in the business of sorting the shoes to check which ones can be resold or redistributed, and which have to be rejected. It says it collected 30,000 pairs of used sneakers last year and resold 2,000 pairs, and wants to scale up that process.

“Today, there is no project of this scale in the sneaker sector,” said Mohamed Boukhatem, the organization's director general and co-founder. “We are the only ones able to industrialize both the processes and the collection of sneakers for reuse.”

The group's work underscores a growing waste problem in France, where the capital Paris is long one of the world’s fashion and luxury hubs.

The stakes are huge: the textile industry is among the world’s most polluting, and the fashion and textiles sector accounts for up to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations. The European Parliament has said textiles were the third-largest source of water degradation and land use in the European Union in 2020.

Refashion, the French government-approved eco-organization for clothing, household linen and footwear, says 259 million pairs of shoes were sold in France in 2024.

It says only about a third of used textiles and footwear are separately collected, with much of the rest left in cupboards or thrown away with household waste.

At its workshop in Champs-sur-Marne, workers for SneakCœurZ inspect the used shoes and check which can be salvaged.

“The structural elements of the shoe are what determine whether we can refurbish it or not,” workshop manager Paul Defawes Abadie said.

“A damaged Velcro strap isn’t a deal breaker. A lace isn’t a deal breaker. Dirt is never a deal breaker,” he said. “What really matters is the wear of the structural materials, especially the outsole.”

Pairs that make the cut are cleaned from the sole upward, disinfected inside and, in some cases, whitened under UV light before being put back into circulation.

The nonprofit says it redistributed more than 7,000 pairs to people in need and helped create 19 jobs.

“Over the next three years, the goal is to triple or even quadruple these volumes and move to an industrial scale,” Boukhatem said.

France has tried to respond to the issue of fast-fashion waste with law, as well as rhetoric.

Its 2020 anti-waste law requires unsold nonfood goods to be reused, donated or recycled instead of destroyed.

Authorities introduced a state-backed repair bonus for clothing and shoes in November 2023. Separately, lawmakers are still working on a bill aimed at reducing the textile industry’s environmental impact.

The bill passed the National Assembly in March 2024 and the Senate in June 2025, and the government said in February that it was still aiming for a joint parliamentary committee this spring.

Fashion

H&M's Q1 Profit Grows More Than Expected, Sees March Sales Up 1%

FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
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H&M's Q1 Profit Grows More Than Expected, Sees March Sales Up 1%

FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo

Swedish fashion retailer H&M reported on Thursday a slightly bigger rise than expected in December-February operating profit, and predicted March sales would be up 1% in local currencies.

"Towards the end of the quarter our well-received spring collections contributed to a positive sales trend, which also continued into March," CEO Daniel Erver said in a statement.

Operating profit in H&M's fiscal first quarter, ⁠which includes the key ⁠Christmas shopping period, rose for a third consecutive quarter to 1.51 billion crowns ($162 million) from a year-earlier 1.20 billion and a mean forecast in an LSEG poll of analysts of 1.39 billion, on an organic sales decrease of 1%.

The rival ⁠to Inditex in January flagged that local-currency sales in the first two months of the quarter were down 2%.

According to Reuters, H&M said it is closely monitoring developments in the Middle East and the implications for global trade.

"With good flexibility in the supply chain and a low proportion of air freight, there are opportunities to adapt the flow of goods to changed conditions," it said. "Middle Eastern markets account for a ⁠small portion ⁠of the company’s total sales and the markets are operated through franchise partners."

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran. Iran has in response launched strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states.

It has attacked vessels and infrastructure throughout the Gulf region and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, hitting global supply chains and causing soaring energy costs, raising concern over war-driven inflation and potential impact on consumer demand.

Fashion

Next Says UK Sales Have Held Up Since Iran War Started

Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
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Next Says UK Sales Have Held Up Since Iran War Started

Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

British clothing retailer Next has not seen a noticeable drop off in UK sales since the US-Israeli war on Iran started at the end of February, its boss said on Thursday.

"Eight weeks, ⁠including the war ⁠weeks, have been good in the UK," CEO Simon Wolfson told Reuters after Next published full-year ⁠results.

He said sales in the Middle East, which account for about 6% of the group's annual turnover, fell "dramatically" in the first few days of the war and demand remains "suppressed.”

Wolfson said if ⁠Next ⁠did have to raise prices around June or July to make up for higher costs caused by the war, the increases would only be 1% to 2%.