Why is Gen Z so obsessed with Shein?

 Why is Gen Z so obsessed with 

The fast-fashion website that has taken over social media

If you've ever been on social media in the past two years, you have probably heard of the ultra-popular fast-fashion brand, Shein. The Chinese company was founded in 2008 but gained popularity in the last few years with the help of a global pandemic creating a higher need for online shopping and the rise of the popular social media app, TikTok. Both fast fashion and clothing hauls are popular topics of conversation on TikTok, and Shein is the perfect storm of both. 

Amongst the community of fashion lovers on TikTok,  posting a Shein haul is guaranteed to get you a good amount of views. However, unlike other clothing hauls, the most popular Shein videos feature an extremely large quantity of clothes that is seen by many as excessive.  

 This is what makes Shein different from their fast-fashion competitors - their extremely low prices. In our current economy, it's almost unimaginable to think of any piece of clothing being under $20, but I'll raise you one more. Shein has prices as low as just a few dollars for a shirt, or a dress for under $10. These extremely low prices make it easy (and tempting) to buy a very large quantity of clothes at once without breaking the bank.

 

 

Not only does Shein offer clothing at an unheard of low cost, they have the newest and most on-trend pieces of the time. The pressure to stay on-trend is very prevalent in today's extremely fast trend cycle and for young shoppers, it's virtually impossible to keep buying new and trendy pieces at a high cost. This is where Shein shines, targeting the young fashion-forward person on a budget.

                                "According to an investigation by Rest of World, Shein added 
                                anywhere between 2,000 and 10,000 individual styles to its
                                app each day between July and December of 2021."
                                                                                                    -Time Magazine 

Shein's marketing tactics have certainly been working as they increased their sales from $10 billion in 2020 to $100 billion in 2022 according to Bloomberg. Although Shein still has quite a tight grasp on Gen Z and young millennials, the question is how long-term can their success be in a generation that is caring more and more about sustainability, or will low prices prevail about environmental consideration?