Shein’s Profits Doubled to $2 Billion in 2023

Can anyone catch Shein?

The Chinese-founded e-tail leviathan more than doubled its profits to hit a record-breaking $2 billion in 2023, according to the Financial Times, which cited four people close to the company.

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In terms of gross merchandise value, the ultra-fast fashion purveyor racked up some $45 billion in goods sold through its website. That’s a lot of $6 bodysuits, $12 minidresses and $16 slingback pumps.

If the numbers hold up, Shein is now—arguably—the world’s second-largest fashion company by revenue, outpacing previous incumbent H&M Group, which rang in far more modest profits of 8.75 billion Swedish kronor, or roughly $815 million, during its last fiscal year. Zara owner Inditex remains at the No. 1 spot with an annual net profit of 5.4 billion euros, or $5.8 billion.

But while Shein has been quickly expanding its already formidable fashion empire, capturing a one-third stake in Forever 21 parent Sparc Group in August before annexing Missguided’s intellectual property from Frasers Group mere months later, its ambitions far exceed clothing. Besides opening its platform to global brands and third-party sellers, the juggernaut plans to offer its supply chain as a service to outside brands and designers, marking a shift in its business strategy that will swerve it further away from the oncoming headlights (not to mention lawsuits) of Temu, which supplanted Shein as the most downloaded shopping app in the United States in 2023 and has become its most bitter rival. China aside, TikTok’s buzziest brand has been making manufacturing inroads in Brazil and potentially Mexico.

Shein declined to comment.

More treacherous, however, has been the retail Goliath’s path to what pundits anticipate as the largest initial public offering in recent memory. Regulatory approval has to come down from Beijing—soon, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times—as well as from Washington for a New York listing. It’s the latter piece that has proven tricky to obtain despite intensive lobbying to the tune of $2 million over nine months last year, according to public records.

Much like with TikTok, the company’s ties to China have come under congressional klieg lights. In February, Florida senator Marco Rubio sent a letter to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chief Gary Gensler urging him to require “extraordinary disclosures from Shein regarding its structure, interactions with the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party and the risks of doing business in the PRC” or “protect U.S. investors by blocking the company’s IPO.”