Everyone knows Shein, with its fast delivery service, cheap prices and endless hauls advertised by influencers. But why is Shein actually so popular?
Just like the algorithms used by TikTok and Instagram that track consumer preferences and record data, Shein does the same. Shein monitors what people interact with, to identify items that are growing and falling in popularity. From this, data collected goes straight to hundreds of manufactures who rapidly change levels of production. This way, people are constantly being shown and supplied with items matching their exact preferences making them buy more and more.
Since Shein is constantly tracking consumer preferences, 1,000-2,000 new styles are added to the inventory daily, highlighting the fast fashion model it follows. As we know, fast fashion models are unsustainable and generate high amounts of waste and carbon dioxide emissions.
Not so fun fact, in 2023 Shein emitted 16.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide…that’s higher than the amount emitted by all of Puerto Rico.
So, although prices may be great, is the cost truly worth it?