After being banned for one and a half years, Shein is going to be relaunched in India.
What’s New?
A year and a half after Shein was temporarily barred from India, the Chinese fashion brand is making a comeback in the country via marketplace Amazon. The company said it will relaunch its outlet during the two-day Amazon Prime Day Sale, which begins at midnight on July 26 and ends on July 27. The e-commerce giant has created a dedicated page for Prime Day launch of Shein. During this time, the entire Amazon website, including Shein will be providing huge discounts on a variety of products.
The Ban
If you aren’t aware of the story behind Shein being banned in India, then let us give you a quick explanation. Earlier in 2019, the site had to temporarily stop shipping orders and initiate customer refunds, following a crackdown by Mumbai Customs’ department over allegations that Chinese shopping sites were paying lower duties than actually due.
Later in December 2019, India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade stated that packages marked as gift items received from overseas will be subject to import duties. This order triggered a temporary setback to shopping sites.
Then, in June 2020, the Indian government banned several Chinese apps, including Shein, TikTok among others amid the rising tensions on the Indo-China border. The apps were ordered to be removed from Google Playstore and Apple App Store.
Popular App
The comeback of Shein has made a lot of Indian shoppers happy, as the company was very popular among Gen-Z and millennial shoppers. The site was popular primarily due to its low prices and trendy fashion. Even though the app is banned in India, Shein operates in other countries and that too successfully.
On May 17, 2021, Shein became the most downloaded shopping app in the U.S, ending Amazon’s 152-day streak, writes TechCrunch. According to SimilarWeb, Shein’s website ranks no.1 in the world for web traffic in the fashion and apparel category. In the ranking list, Shein’s website is ahead of big brands such as Nike, Zara, Macys, Lululemon and Adidas worldwide. According to a report by HypeAuditor, Shein was the most talked about brand on TikTok in 2020.
Zooming Out
Even without being in the Indian market, Shein did almost $10 billion in sales in 2020, up from $4.5 billion in 2019, according to Chinese media sources. So, being relaunched in India via Amazon means that Shein will be making more money in sales as well as bring a tough competition to apps such as Flipkart.
Shein is not the first ‘India-banned’ app to be relaunched in the country, but PUBG Mobile was. On May this year, Krafton, the South Korean developer of PUBG Mobile, said that it is bringing back the game to India under the brand name Battlegrounds Mobile India. Since India is a crucial market, the idea to revamp the product and relaunching it makes a lot of sense. So, we might see more apps that were banned by the government making a comeback in India in the future.
