Shein coming back to India in partnership with Reliance: 5 things you need to know

It is unclear how exactly the partnership will take place, and if Shein will operate independently. Reliance Retail's footprint is spread across India through offline stores and online as well, and it is being presumed that the Chinese company will use the conglomerate's network of warehouses and stores. This is expected to be a full-fledged comeback for Shein in India and not like the one where it started selling products through Amazon India but with very limited stock.  

As Shein prepares to comeback to India, here are five things you need to know about the popular fast-fashion brand:

• Shein will be making a comeback in India three years after it was banned by the government. The main USP of Shein was that it offered a variety of fast-fashion clothes but at affordable rates. It is a Chinese online fast-fashion retailer that was founded in October 2008 in Nanjing, China, with its headquarters in Singapore. Shein was earlier only operating as a shipping company as it would source clothes from the wholesale market in Guangzhou.
• The fast-fashion retailer has been embroiled in cases ranging from data privacy, trademark issues, and even forced labour. It was even accused of using forced labour from the Chinese ethnic minority, Uyghurs. Shein has however denied such claims and allegations against the company.
• In October 2022 when Shein suffered a data breach and details of 39 million users were stolen. Shein's parent company Zoetop was fined $1.9 million for the data breach and how it handled it as it lied about how much user data was compromised.
• Shein has also been sued for copying designs of popular brands such as Levi's, Dr Martens and Ralph Lauren.
• The Shein ban in India was part of the first wave of Chinese-linked apps that were banned in the country. The ban was put in place due to a disputed border issue between India and China. The Indian government cited security reasons and risks such as data collection and possible spying from Chinese forces through these apps. 

Shein grew to be a popular fast-fashion marketplace and it currently delivers to more than 150 countries. The company was valued at $100 billion after a funding round in April 2022. It reportedly posted $23 billion in sales last year. The company is however seeing a decrease in growth given its recent fundraising which was $2 billion putting its current valuation at $66 billion, but the company is said to grow by 40 percent this year.chi