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| SHEIN, shein.com, shuttown shein, chapin fay, actum, china, retail, clothing, jewelry, accessories, chris xy, yangtian xy, nanjing, temu, wish, aliexpress, amazon, ebay, fashion nova, forever21, Zara, H&M, Asos, cheap, prices, mary cummins, los angeles, california 希音 |
SHEIN is a very successful Chinese e-commerce company selling clothing, jewelry, accessories and home decor items online direct to International and American consumers. Recently they and their customers have been attacked by a paid professional organization called "Shut down Shein." The organization is funded by US competitors of SHEIN and run by registered lobbyist Chapin Fay of Actum. Actum is a US paid public relations "lobbyist" business. The campaign Twitter account only has 28 followers! :-D
SHEIN 希音 was founded by Chris Xu aka Yangtian Xu in 2008 in Nanjing, China. The company is privately owned with headquarters in Singapore and warehouses, distribution centers all around the world and US. SHEIN through its vendors sells items at almost wholesale Chinese prices direct to the consumer. They are like wholesale Amazon, eBay, Temu, Wish, AliExpress for trendy clothing, jewelry and accessories. For this reason their almost identical items are much, much cheaper than comparative items sold by their US competitors.
What would cost $9 to $69 at H&M, Zara, ASOS, FashionNova, Forever 21...costs $1 to $9 at SHEIN. SHEIN also has an insane variety of products adding thousands of new items per day. SHEIN does not operate expensive International and US retail brick and mortar stores except for some temporary popup stores. This reduces costs which is how they are able to sell items at lower price points.
Instead of changing their business model to better compete with SHEIN the US competitors have embarked on a smear campaign of attacks, lies and pleas to the media, public and US politicians to shut down SHEIN by any means. "Shut down Shein" and their supporters attack anyone who supports SHEIN online including commenters and shoppers on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. They call them "anti-American," "racists," supporters of "slavery" and even "communists." They're attacking teenage girls whose only sin was to comment "cute!" on a tshirt posted by SHEIN. They're also spreading anti-Chinese racism and hate during Asian heritage month.
The lies don't stop there. They state that SHEIN makes "throw away" clothes which are destroying the environment. SHEIN is making similar clothes to the ones their US competitors are selling. They're made in the same place in the same way with the same materials for the same wholesale price sometimes even in the same factory. Nike, Adidas, Levis, L.L. Bean, Calvin Klein, Abercrombie & Fitch and the more expensive brands like Armani, Burberry, Prada, D&G, Marc Jacobs are also made in China. Even luxury jewelry brands are made in China such as Maria Tash and many more.
They even state that SHEIN steals copyrighted designs. Most clothing, jewelry and accessories are made with inspiration from other items. The large US companies do the exact same thing which is why they're complaining because it's competition. There have been copyright claims on some designs in the past. When you consider the sheer number of vendors and items, one could see how that could happen. SHEIN has a copyright policy. They will remove any copyrighted item posted by any of their vendors. Perhaps large companies such as SHEIN can institute an auto Google image search of all new items to prevent this possibility especially since they're adding thousands of new products daily.
There was a claim that some products used cotton sourced from forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang, China violating the Federal Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). Cotton from Xinjiang is widely used in the global garment industry. As of last fall, 16 percent of cotton clothes on store shelves in the US contained this cotton. It's a difficult issue because the cotton ends up being mixed with other cotton, sold as thread, yarn and manufactured into fabric or products in places other than China. Adidas, Hugo Boss, Puma all were found to have this cotton in their products even though they had no links with Xinjiang. Xinjiang cotton is shipped to India, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries who then make products. H&M, Nike, L.L. Bean, Patagonia, Victoria Secrets, Reformtion, L Brand and many more US companies used this cotton. There's no way to know if products have this cotton without DNA testing it. SHEIN states they no longer use this cotton. So do the US companies. If you were to DNA them all, they all may have some of this cotton. SHEIN has a supply chain statement. They also have statements about supporting entrepreneurs, the community and environment. More info about the company here.
Some people are buying items in SHEIN just so they can leave false negative reviews about other issues. Here's one for a plastic hair clip. It's not cotton. "SHEIN USES UYGHURS. SHEIN USES UYGHURS. SHEIN USES UYGHURS." It's in English and Arabic and recent.
In the past these same large US companies ran smaller US stores out of business by selling cheaper items made in China. These same companies used similar business practices as SHEIN which indirectly killed the smaller US companies. Now that SHEIN has taken it a step further by selling items at almost wholesale prices the US companies are screaming foul. There is nothing stopping the US competitors from dropping their prices to match SHEIN's except profits.
SHEIN is successful because SHEIN has similar items for a lot less money than US retailers. They are able to do this by making money off volume and having a cost effective supply chain, efficient logistics, modern technology and data-driven insights. Their website is easy to navigate and they have detailed dimensions, materials, sizes and customer reviews listed for the products which their competitors don't have. Their customer service and shipping is much better and faster and they're all the way in China. Items generally arrive in nine days or less from order to delivery in the US which is faster than US companies. They also offers shopper incentives for placing orders, receiving orders and leaving reviews besides offering lots of coupons and special pricing.
There are companies which sell similar items in many different stores for similar prices in China, i.e. Temu, Wish, Alibaba and AliExpress. SHEIN is more successful than those companies in the US because customer services is ten times better, products are superior and items ship faster and more reliably. SHEIN ships all items combined from their own warehouse. The other companies ship items individually though more recently they're doing some group shipping through central shipping centers.
The other Chinese businesses operate in a similar manner as SHEIN and have existed for years. The US competitors don't care about them because they aren't as successful. Amazon, eBay, Walmart and other websites selling items from China legally operate in the same manner under the tariff free $800 de minimus threshold for imports from China. Again the US companies don't care as much because they aren't as successful when it comes to trendy, fashionable clothing, jewelry and accessories. They're only calling out SHEIN. They know they can't shut down Amazon, eBay or Walmart which operate under the same de minimis threshold. If they can't shut down Amazon, eBay or Walmart, they won't be able to shut down SHEIN for those same reasons.
"Shut down Shein" claims that SHEIN is not paying tariffs and other taxes on the items sold. Amazon, eBay, Walmart, AliExpress...all operate legally in the same manner and have for years. The US companies could also operate in the same way if they wanted to do so. Instead they'd rather use mainstream media, social media and the US government to try to harm their competition.
Here are some things "Shut down Shein" states about SHEIN in their website that "proves" they should be shut down. It looks like a list of SHEIN's successes to me. If the US companies had accomplished these things, they'd be patting themselves on the back, giving their CEOs bonuses and bragging about it to the media.
"SHEIN is the No.1 downloaded app in both Android and iOS App Store’s Shopping category in the U.S. with 229 million downloads, beating out Amazon by almost 34 million downloads."
"SHEIN has an “unusual” marketing strategy that heavily targets teenaged and twenty-something American “influencers.” SHEIN targets all age groups. All the other companies use the same marketing strategy. If an 8-12 year old goes to Claires to buy cheap jewelry, they will be tracked by their profile, favorites, purchases, which items they linger on while scrolling... Shein only allows people 16 or older to use their website.
"SHEIN’s website ranks #1 in the world for web traffic in the fashion and apparel category, according to SimilarWeb, putting them ahead of household names Nike, Zara, Macys, Lululemon and Adidas."
"A recent survey of American upper income teens by investment bank Piper Sandler ranked SHEIN as 2nd after Amazon for most popular shopping website."
"The average duration of a site visit is estimated at 8 mins 36 seconds, higher than every major US fashion brand."
Chapin Fay who is behind "Shut down Shein" has used lies to try to garner immigrant votes for Republicans. One campaign was called "Stop the insanity" which Fay promoted on social media. It was a fear mongering campaign just like "shut down Shein." Thankfully political candidate Lee Zeldin lost the campaign. He also campaigned against AOC and again lost. Fay is hoping that current Chinese hate, racism, distrust and anti-TikTok will help his smear campaign.
Some of Fay's similar lines of rhetoric against SHEIN are “TIKTOK IS THE NEEDLE, SHEIN IS THE DRUG,” “TikTok and Shein, controlled by the [Chinese Communist Party], are trying to capture an entire generation of American youth. And in a way, they already have,” "Shein: The biggest national security threat you never heard of," Shein's “dangerous and reprehensible behavior.” All these statements are straight from their links below. Fay is actively spreading lies and anti-Chinese hate and racism. Fay is contacting all politicians who hate China asking for help. Truly a despicable campaign especially during Asian Pacific heritage month here in the US.
The PR website states their specialties are "communications, government relations, storytelling, narrative development, digital and social media, advocacy mobilization, special groups, political consulting, public opinion." If telling the world how much more successful their competitor is, is their idea of "narrative development," their client should get their money back. So far these petty attacks using an anonymous name appear as jealousy of their successful competition. The personal attacks on teenage girl SHEIN shoppers on Instagram are very low. I was even attacked by them.
This campaign is already a bust. Their Twitter account only has 28 followers! :-D It only follows US politicians. Their main campaign is to try to derail their IPO via a letter from US politicians. They want SHEIN to certify that they don't use forced labor. I believe they already did that in their website. This looks like illegal interference with business and commerce to me.
In response to the campaign, a spokesperson for Shein said: “Shein proudly provides customers with on-demand and affordable fashion, beauty and lifestyle products, lawfully and with full respect for the communities where we operate. We categorically deny these false and baseless claims, and will not hesitate to take swift action to protect the rights of our company.”
I sure hope SHEIN hires some lobbyists, PR people, media to help them deal with this nasty attack from "Shut down Shein." The people and companies behind this should be exposed as sleazy, liars, defamers, cheats and hypocrites. I highly doubt there is a human rights organization behind this campaign. They would have mentioned their name if they were supporting this cause.
Below is a quick example of the price differences. This earring is a gold plated hidden helix dangle. Maria Tash sells it for $490. It's made in China like the rest of Tash's expensive jewelry. Maria Tash says the design is "patented." It's not. Tash patented the back of a stud earring which no one else uses because it catches your hair. You can't copyright, patent a fashion design like this. People made and sold the earring before Tash but she lies about all of her jewelry. The exact same earring sells for $4 on SHEIN. The SHEIN version has a high quality Zircon instead of a diamond but it's still gold plate over sterling silver. The same earring on AliExpress is $3. The same earring on Etsy which was bought on AliExpress is $25-$100. Many other places sell it for $100-$200. There's a HUGE markup in jewelry and clothes. US companies are pissed that SHEIN has shown the world their huge profit margin. Below is SHEIN's earring. They show materials and dimensions which helps the consumer. Other places don't.
*I don't work for SHEIN. I just read some articles about "Shut down Shein" and saw people viciously attacking SHEIN's customers online and decided to investigate to try to understand why. The post I saw was about Frida Khalo merchandise. SHEIN licensed the name and likeness for a product line legally with the owner of the Frida Khalo trademark which is the Khalo family. I'm related to Diego Rivera which is why I saw the article. Shut down Shein attacked Shein for this even though Shein did everything legally and properly. I posted that the licensing deal was legal and was attacked so badly I had to remove my posts to get rid of their attacks against me. I have more research which I may add to this story at a later date.
@SHEIN_Official @SHEINUS_ @SHEIN_news
References
media@shutdownshein.com @shutdownshein
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lawmakers-call-sec-asses-shein-221757019.html
https://www.semafor.com/article/04/14/2023/following-tiktok-play-chinas-shein-enters-dcs-crosshairs
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/the-complicated-path-to-avoiding-cotton-from-xinjiang/48134540
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