Fast-Fashion Giant Shein Mulling Becoming Online Marketplace

Online fashion retailer Shein is looking at redesigning its business to compete with the world’s big e-commerce companies. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Singapore-based company is exploring moving beyond selling its own brand apparel by becoming a marketplace platform that will enable other merchants to sell directly to customers.

The plan would extend Shein’s moves to diversify its supply chain away from China, efforts that include manufacturing in Turkey and new warehousing in the U.S. and Europe. Creating a marketplace would mark a still bigger step for a business that has grown rapidly into one of the world’s top online sellers by offering a large assortment of apparel at ultra-low prices. 

Creating a marketplace would put Shein in more direct competition with e-commerce giants including Amazon and Alibaba. The new volumes under its sales umbrella would also make Shein a bigger force in international logistics.