Shein Unseats Amazon as Most Downloaded US Shopping App
It’s hard to imagine that one clothing company could upend Amazon, but Shein(Opens in a new window) (pronounced "shee-in") has done it, at least in terms of app downloads.
The China-based company surpassed Amazon in terms of global app downloads in 2021, but the first half of 2022 marks the first time it's eclipsed Amazon in the US—with 22.4 million Shein downloads versus 22 million for Amazon, according to a new report from Apptopia(Opens in a new window).
It’s a small margin, but notable for a company founded just 10 years ago. Shein has made headlines for its explosive growth, fueled by expert digital marketing and sales that make you think, “How is that even possible?” Thousands of new items are uploaded to its website every day, which quickly land in the carts of Gen Z shoppers in 150 countries(Opens in a new window).
But while the website photography shows perfectly fitting clothing in idyllic settings, numerous shoppers have reported receiving ill-fitting, poorly made clothing—or not receiving packages at all, according to Euronews(Opens in a new window).
Add on questionable labor practices, such as 12-hour days of continuously sewing garments, as PublicEye(Opens in a new window) reports, and the sheen of Shein wears off pretty quickly. The brand has gone from being seen as holy grail of e-commerce—a place where shoppers can find something they love for the cheapest price they’ve ever seen —to the poster child of "fast fashion."
Fast fashion is broadly defined(Opens in a new window) as cheap, mass-produced clothing made to satisfy short-lived trends. It’s a negative term, typically associated with unethical environmental and labor practices. The antidote to it is known as "slow fashion," where shoppers—many of
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