Shein’s global ambitions survive French store uproar

[PARIS] Shein’s choice of Paris for its first physical store set off a furor among French retailers and politicians fretting over the potential damage to local businesses from the fast-fashion retailer.

Yet almost two months after the doors opened, efforts to resist Shein in France are falling flat. A Paris court on Friday (Dec 19) rejected a government call to temporarily suspend its online platform over sales of childlike sex dolls and weapons, describing a ban as disproportionate.

The e-commerce giant, whose model of high-volume, ultra-cheap fashion has upended traditional retailing, looks like it’s in France to stay, despite the chorus of protests from across the political spectrum that greeted the store’s opening.

“As long as its products are welcomed by consumers, Shein will eventually prevail,” said Sai Lan, an associate professor for innovation and entrepreneurship at Em Lyon Business School’s Shanghai campus.

Founded in China and now based in Singapore, Shein has become an online juggernaut. Its decision to open a bricks-and-mortar outlet in the city where Coco Chanel and Christian Dior rose to fame appears aimed at winning a measure of legitimacy.

Paris ‘showcase’

In announcing Shein’s arrival in Paris, executive chairman Donald Tang said the group was “honouring its position as a key fashion capital and embracing its spirit of creativity and excellence”.

“Paris is a showcase for them,” said Olivier Lamotte, an international strategy professor at EM Normandie Business School.

Located on the top floor of the historic BHV Marais department store, not far from the Notre-Dame cathedral, the Shein outlet is a showcase that France’s retail establishment vehemently opposes. Yann Rivoallan, president of the French women’s ready-to-wear federation, said the shop would weaken the image of French fashion.

Platforms such as Shein and online marketplace Temu “put consumers’ safety at risk, weaken our businesses, destroy jobs and threaten the vitality of our regions”, retail trade groups said in a November statement.

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Yet on a recent weekday, the quiet aisles at the Paris store stood in sharp contrast to the hullabaloo around its opening. Only one of 10 Shein cash registers was staffed as a handful of shoppers browsed among the polyester cocktail dresses and faux leather jackets.

Some shoppers filmed themselves strolling through the 1,000 square metre space, while others murmured it was better to view the clothes in the shop and then buy them online for less. It looked, in other words, a lot like any other store.

Paris may be known for its luxury boutiques, where tourists line up to buy Louis Vuitton and Hermès handbags, but it’s no stranger to fast fashion. H&M, Zara and Uniqlo stores line the boulevards, catering to shoppers with mass-produced clothes at low prices.

Yet critics say Shein takes the industry’s practices to a dangerous extreme. Its ultra-cheap products have led to heightened concerns over environmental damage, waste generation and the working conditions at its suppliers. It consistently scores lower than its peers on climate pollution and waste metrics. French authorities fined the company 40 million euros (S$61 million) earlier this year for misleading sales practices.

Shein’s swift rise in France, as in other countries, has been driven in part by the increasing cost of living. And even as inflation has eased, consumers are still buying cheap products, whether it’s fast fashion or secondhand items from platforms such as Vinted.

Sales on Shein and its e-commerce peers Temu and AliExpress now represent 6 per cent of total clothing sales in France in terms of quantity and 2 per cent in value, according to data from the Institut Francais de la Mode fashion school. And 10 per cent of consumers in the country say Shein is among the retailers where they shop the most, on par with H&M and Zara, an AlixPartners and YouGov survey shows.

“The consumer is always going to go for the lowest price, and the lowest price comes from those who have the most competitive cost structures,” Olivier Abtan, partner and managing director at AlixPartners, told reporters in Paris.

Although Shein has been active in the country for years, French anger coalesced around the Paris store. Days before the shop was set to open, the finance ministry’s anti-fraud office announced that it had reported Shein for selling the sex dolls that resembled children on its third-party marketplace. That was followed shortly after by a second report, filed by a lawmaker, of weapons including machetes and brass knuckles.

An initial administrative procedure to suspend Shein fell through after it removed the sex dolls and weapons in question and halted marketplace sales. Following the court decision on Friday, Shein said that it welcomed the ruling and that it was “intensifying” efforts to improve its control processes alongside French authorities. The French government said that it intends to appeal.

France has also lobbied for tighter controls across the continent, including pushing the European Union to put a temporary three euros fee on small packages ahead of a permanent levy in 2028. The measure, set to take effect next July, will end a customs duty exemption for goods valued at less than 150 euros that has been key to the rapid growth of platforms such as Shein.

The number of declared small packages entering France rose by 45 per cent in 2024 to 189.4 million, though the rate of growth is set to slow this year, according to the finance ministry’s customs office. The median value of an item now sits at 3.4 euros, and 97 per cent of shipped goods come from China.

At least a dozen French brands have folded or neared collapse in recent years, including Kookaï, Camaïeu, Pimkie and Naf Naf, pummelled by both Covid-19 and more agile platforms such as Shein.

Stores shut down during the pandemic, driving more clients to shop online, and retailers were slow to embrace a digital strategy even as Shein analysed social media for trends and launched thousands of new items each day to appeal to fluctuating tastes.

“The French fashion industry has let itself be completely overtaken” by Shein, said Sandrine Zerbib, who runs consultancy ZW Conseil. “We haven’t implemented tools that allow us to meet demand. If we want to be competitive, we have to do what consumers are asking for.”

In interviews, other experts said that tougher legislation, more than a fresh approach by French retailers, was needed.

“The solution will come from policy,” said Anne-Sophie Alsif, chief economist at auditing and consulting firm BDO France. “Companies need to respect our rules and our standards, and a lot of brands are struggling because of this unfair competition.”

Rivoallan at the women’s ready-to-wear federation said that consumers have lost touch with the value of clothes.

“Shein is making people believe that a t-shirt is worth three euros,” he said. “We have lost understanding of what a quality material is, now it’s just about the pleasure of having cheap clothes.”

Government ministers have renewed calls for locally produced goods, but many “made in France” labels struggle to reach high enough volumes to bring prices down. Large retailers moved production out of the country decades ago.

At the BHV Marais, holiday lights stream down the facade that a month ago was adorned with a massive poster of Shein’s Tang and Frederic Merlin, the head of the department store’s parent, Societe des Grands Magasins. City hall officials across the street had decried the billboard as a “provocation”.

“France is a country of paradoxes,” said Lamotte, the EM Normandie professor. “We want to defend sovereignty and there’s been an overreaction from politicians, and at the same time there’s strong demand from consumers.” BLOOMBERG