Summarize with ChatGPT<\/a> |\u00a0Google AI<\/a> | Perplexity<\/a> | Grok<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Despite reaching 81 million downloads worldwide<\/a> and trending on app stores, Shein has maintained a low profile.<\/p>\n The self-proclaimed \u201cB2C fast fashion e-commerce platform\u201d was founded in 2008. Its headquarters are registered in Guangzhou, China. The company designs and manufactures clothing and apparel, operating a supply chain that is unmatched in its ability to deliver \u201cfast fashion\u201d (we\u2019ll get to that later).<\/p>\n The publicity Shein received after overtaking Amazon for app downloads makes the fast-fashion company one to be noticed. However, it’s important to note that Amazon\u2019s high app penetration, almost 57%,\u00a0 makes growing its app downloads more challenging than Shein. Nevertheless, Shein seems like a formidable force that can challenge ecommerce giants.<\/p>\n We also cannot deny that with consumers turning heavily to mobile shopping, this win is further proof of Shein\u2019s rising force.<\/p>\n Based on the size, revenue, and scope of the business, at first glance, Shein seems a little match for Amazon. But once we look at Shein\u2019s strengths, including where Shein overtakes Amazon, and vice-versa, it\u2019s clear it\u2019s a heavy hitter in Amazon\u2019s corner.<\/p>\n Shein could be the quickest fast fashion provider around. The company emulates catwalk trends, then provides low prices online and fast delivery to mass audiences. Other well-known fast fashion brands include ASOS, H&M, and Zara.<\/p>\n Shein achieves speed-to-store by owning its production chain, from design and prototype to procurement and manufacturing. Each step is highly digitized and integrated with the others, enabling Shein to churn out hundreds of new products tailored to different regions and user tastes at a daily rate.<\/p>\n Shein\u2019s slogan is \u201ceveryone has the right to enjoy the beauty of fashion.\u201d <\/i>Closely aligning with this, the company accommodates many different styles and body types, including a popular section for plus-size fashion. The retail brand\u2019s more realistic approach to the human body aligns with many of the fastest-growing D2C brands this year and helps appeal to a wider audience.<\/p>\n Shein has successfully appealed to Gen-Z, through:<\/p>\n Amazon is a marketplace across products and lines of business, including streaming services, and is expanding into additional industries. Shein just focuses on fashion. To compare the two retailers fairly, we’ll hone in on Amazon\u2019s fashion-related shopping category with our ecommerce tools:<\/p>\n Worldwide traffic to shein.com<\/a> has nearly doubled from September 2020, soaring from 32.7 million to 67.2 million monthly visits.<\/p>\n In the U.S. Shein\u2019s traffic nearly tripled since January 2020 from 10.6 million to 27.8 million today. However, Amazon has consistently generated more traffic to its Clothing, Shoes, & Jewelry category than Shein, rising from 73.0 million visits in January 2020 to 94.1 million today.<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s growth seems more impacted by seasonality than Shein’s. Amazon\u2019s traffic spiked in December 2019 (109.3 million) and 2020 (124.9 million), reflecting holiday gift-buying. Shein\u2019s growth actually declined slightly month-over-month (MoM) at the same time. Amazon seems to attract a larger proportion of customers buying just fashion-related gifts for the holiday season, perhaps because they are already shopping in other Amazon categories. However, Shein seems to attract more consumers who buy fast fashion regularly from its site.<\/p>\n Overall, U.S. web traffic<\/a> to shein.com seems to be steadily and consistently growing. As it gains brand awareness in the U.S., it seems to seamlessly build a fashion-forward customer base of regular shoppers. By volume of visits, direct traffic<\/a> and organic search are the primary traffic channels for both ecommerce sites. Amazon receives significantly more of its traffic through direct channels (58.8%), whereas Shein gets just 36.7%, reflecting greater brand awareness for Amazon.<\/p>\n Overall, Shein lags behind the fashion and apparel industry for this metric, which receives 42.2% of traffic through direct channels, indicating the need to improve brand awareness<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shein\u2019s percentage of traffic through organic search channels also trails the industry average of 31.1%, as does Amazon\u2019s. Shein generates 20.1% through organic search vs. 24.6% for Amazon.<\/p>\n Shein\u2019s top search terms tend to be trendy, fashion-related terms or rival brand names rather than Shein-branded terms.<\/p>\n In the U.S., these keywords scored higher than the best-performing branded keyword:<\/p>\n Shein\u2019s investment in paid search seems to mitigate low brand awareness and help spur growth.<\/p>\n This year, Shein received 18.9% of its worldwide desktop traffic through paid search, exceeding the fashion and apparel industry (11.7%) by over 7 percentage points. Amazon received just 3.2% of traffic through paid searches.<\/p>\n Shein\u2019s website visitors are becoming more engaged. Looking at some key ecommerce metrics<\/a>, we notice:<\/p>\n Bounce rate: <\/b>Shein shows progress by managing to push its bounce rates<\/a>, down from 34% in August 2020 to 27% by July 2021.<\/p>\n The graph\u2019s upward trend of unbounced visits shows Shoppers are gaining confidence in Shein\u2019s fast fashion. More and more visitors are coming to stay.<\/p>\n \u00a0Shein’s unbounced visits show growing engagement<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Pages visited:<\/b> The number of pages users visit on average has grown from close to 13 last year to almost 16 pages this year. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Shein\u2019s strong engagement metrics<\/a> suggest it\u2019s effectively building a strong, loyal customer base. An analysis of Amazon loyalty metrics<\/a> using Similarweb Shopper Intelligence suggests Amazon also has a strong following.<\/p>\n Customer loyalty for its apparel category is on the rise. In July 2021, revenue for Subscribe and Save<\/a>, its subscription program, went up over 70% MoM. In August, more than 67% of Amazon fashion and apparel shoppers were returning customers.<\/p>\n Growing Subscribe and Save metrics indicate more recurring revenue for Amazon and that it is successfully growing out one sector of its business. Unlike Shein, Amazon is not known as a fashion business.<\/p>\n Despite online apparel shopping becoming more popular, consumers generally spend more time browsing before buying, lowering ecommerce conversion rates<\/a>. The 12% decline in conversion rates (CVRs) since January 2020 for Amazon\u2019s fashion and apparel category, despite growing sales and product views, reflects this. Amazon\u2019s current CVR for fashion and apparel is just 4.5% across U.S. desktop and mobile apps.<\/p>\n CVR for Amazon’s Clothing category (via Shopper Intelligence)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Shein started with a CVR of only 1% in 2019, caught up with the industry leaders<\/a> in 2020, and reached 5% in March 2021, which exceeds Amazon.<\/p>\n The growing number of converted visits for Shein, again, signals that it’s building trust among consumers. Visitors don\u2019t just window-shop or compare styles and prices. It seems Shein\u2019s low-price, fast-delivery fashion for everyone to enjoy makes it easy to reach a buying decision and optimize its conversion funnel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shein may be a threat to Amazon\u2019s fashion and apparel business, but it\u2019s critical to note that Amazon\u2019s primary business ambitions are elsewhere. To get a better sense of where Shein stands, we\u2019ll briefly compare it to top competing fast-fashion retailers. These are vying for the same audience\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n Despite the rise in consumer demand<\/a> for online apparel shopping, competitor retailers have hardly increased their CVRs since January 2019, whereas Shein grew to 5%. H&M maintained a conversion rate of 4%, Zara held steady at 5%, and only Nike increased from 3% to 5%.<\/p>\n In a standoff between top competitors, Shein’s CVR further shows it may be a force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n Shein’s strong conversion rate growth may be a force for other retailers to reckon with<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Shein\u2019s rise to fame was exceptionally fast, and the fast-fashion brand could soon outperform its competitors, becoming a game-changer in the online shopping category \u2018fashion.\u2019<\/p>\n Though Shein is growing quickly, its threat to Amazon as a whole seems to be minimal right now, given Amazon\u2019s size and diverse offerings. However, it is important to note that Amazon started by just selling books online, and perfected this \u2013 could Shein be next, but with fashion?<\/p>\n Amazon and other top ecommerce sites<\/a> may want to think about innovating in directions they didn\u2019t previously consider and emulate Shein.<\/p>\n To see more marketplace comparisons check out:<\/p>\nShining a light on Shein<\/h2>\n
Why compare Shein vs. Amazon?<\/h2>\n
Shein vs. Amazon: An overview<\/h3>\n
![\"Shein](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Amazon-vs.-Shein-company-comparison.png\")
<\/p>\nHow Shein became so trendy<\/h2>\n
1. Mastery of fast fashion<\/h3>\n
2. Provides fashion for regular people<\/h3>\n
![\"Shein's](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Amazon-vs.-Shein-shein.com_.png\")
<\/p>\n3. GenZ attraction<\/h3>\n
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![\"Shein's](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Shein-image.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nShein vs. Amazon: Digital performance<\/h2>\n
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Web traffic<\/h3>\n
\n![\"Schedule](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Copy-of-Inline-Blog-Banner-Rebrand-11.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMain traffic channels<\/h3>\n
Direct<\/h4>\n
Organic search<\/h4>\n
Search terms<\/h4>\n
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Paid advertising<\/h3>\n
Engagement metrics<\/h3>\n
![\"growth](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Unbounced-Visits-to-shein.com_.png\")
Audience loyalty<\/h3>\n
Converted visits<\/h3>\n
![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Emilyf-SW-Blog-Pro-Screenshot-Rebrand-53.png\")
![\"Shein](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Converted-Visits-to-shein.com_.png\")
<\/p>\nShein vs. competing online retailers<\/h2>\n
![\"Shein](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/chart-5.png\")
Key takeaway<\/h2>\n
Other marketplace comparisons<\/h3>\n
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Get your own insights<\/h3>\n