Shein, an online fast-fashion retailer, is pursuing brands such as toothpaste firm Colgate-Palmolive and toymaker Hasbro in an effort to sell more familiar names through its platform.

Shein, best known for its low-cost own-brand apparel and accessories, is expanding into new categories and has already allowed brands and retailers access to its platform in nine European nations, after doing so in the United States, Brazil, and Mexico last year.

The approach, which is part of Shein’s ambition to gain reputation and better compete with Amazon, allows the company to expand and create new ways of selling items ahead of its scheduled stock market debut later this year.

Shein, Colgate-Palmolive, Hasbro, Orangina producer Suntory Beverage & Food, and Spanish cosmetics company Bella Aurora all showcased their marketplace services at a recent event in Madrid last month.

“Everybody associates Shein with fashion, but we are doing all verticals,” Christina Fontana, senior director of brand operations for Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Shein, told participants at a conference in Paris on April 17.

Fontana said the impulse came from seeing buyers open Shein and seek for other brands.

“Our consumers want brands, [so] if that’s what they’re looking for, that’s what we’re going to give them.”

HSBC is looking for a new head.

Fontana, who formerly worked for AliBaba, is one of several marketplace specialists that Shein has hired from the Chinese e-commerce behemoth and other companies.

That recruiting has fueled fast growth. Shein has an average of 108 million monthly active users in European Union member countries in the six months ending January 31.

However, the company’s expansion has introduced additional challenges, such as new EU regulations forcing it to monitor its platform for unlawful or hazardous items.

Shein’s marketplace is currently available in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

According to analysts, the success of the new markets and Shein’s ability to compete with Amazon and AliExpress will be determined by the companies it attracts.

“If Shein wants to compete as a trustworthy and reputable marketplace platform, it really needs endorsement from well-known Western brands,” said Xiaofeng Wang, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester in Singapore.

Claire Lin, Shein’s head of seller marketing, presented a Zoom webinar to potential sellers in the United States on Thursday, pitching an opportunity for brands to reach millions of buyers and “supercharge” sales.

“Our shopping experience is very sticky, it’s very much gamified,” she went on to say. “It’s fun to shop on our site, so what we see is the minimum shopping time is around eight minutes, well above industry average.”

Shein customers are Gen Z and millennials, with a roughly 80-20 gender split, according to Lin.

According to Shein, the top-performing categories right now are home, technology, and beauty & health, with food and drinks being the only one she does not provide.

According to a graphic exhibited during the webinar, the gross merchandise value (total value of items sold) in the home category quadrupled in 2023, while electronics rose 2.5 times and beauty & health climbed 2.1 times, respectively.

Selling directly through a marketplace may bring a huge revenue boost to businesses. However, before doing so, manufacturers often need reassurance that the marketplace is a suitable fit for the population they want to serve, as well as control over pricing and marketing.

Shein’s platforms have attracted a large number of third-party shops.

Shein’s platform presently sells products from cosmetics and skincare brands such as Caudalie, CeraVe, La Roche-Posay, Shiseido, The Ordinary, Rimmel, and Weleda through third-party merchants in the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, and Mexico.

Weleda’s UK & Ireland national manager, Jayn Sterland, stated that the Swiss cosmetics business has no plans to sell directly on Shein.

When considering a marketplace, the brand considers reputation, perception, and environmental effect, according to Sterland, citing sustainability projects Weleda is working on with Amazon, where it sells directly.

Colgate-Palmolive did not return a request for comment. According to a Hasbro spokeswoman, the business attended the Madrid event “to talk generally about the pros and cons of marketplaces”.

According to a spokeswoman for Suntory, “We don’t sell any of our drinks on Shein’s marketplace and we don’t have any plans to, this was just an opportunity to share best practise.”

(Adapted from EconomicTimes.com)