Decoding SHEIN's "Multi-Mode Platform": Becoming the "Think Tank" for the Outbound Army of Sellers

[Ebrun Original] "In the past, the experience of trying cross-border e-commerce was not good. We need to train ourselves to be a 'versatile player,' sort out product R&D and production, learn the platform's operational rules and advertising techniques, and solve complicated and lengthy cross-border logistics, after-sales, and other issues. After a series of hard work, if the product is not selling well overseas, cannot be sold, and may end up in a bust."

This was said by Ben, the founder of a fashion women's clothing brand. Similar to Ben's experience, many sellers, traders, or brand merchants from China have strong manufacturing and trade advantages and have become an important way for them to find more business opportunities. However, before formally entering a cross-border outbound platform, due to insufficient familiarity with the new market, new users, new rules, and new ways of playing, the merchants also had bouts of struggle in their hearts, whether to go global or not. This was a problem.

Only after joining the operation model of SHEIN platform, did Ben dispel many of his previous concerns. Ben found that SHEIN's operation management brought great convenience to his team, "We only need to focus on product R&D and production. SHEIN supports overseas delivery, operations, traffic, after-sales, etc., and there is no need to worry about overseas inventory being unsold." Ben said.

Leveraging the well-established global market network of SHEIN, more and more companies are joining the trend of going global. Founded in 2012, the global unicorn SHEIN, after creating the well-known independent fashion brand SHEIN, has further expanded its platform model. With the advantages of its brand assets accumulated over more than ten years, massive user network, international market operation experience and resources, and flexible supply chain, it hopes to demonstrate the rise of its own brand story while helping more quality products, sellers, and brands from around the world step onto a bigger stage through the "self-owned brand + platform" dual-line development model.

01

SHEIN's next small goal:

Help the army of sellers make bigger business

From having only 2 developers at the beginning, to now having a development team of 45 people; from having no self-owned factories, to having 8 professional modern clothing factories; from starting with just a few styles for "trial-and-error" to having over 200 styles for sale, with annual sales increasing fourfold. Ben has built his brand from 0 to 1 through his cooperation with SHEIN.

Ben's story is a silhouette of SHEIN's "Million Seller Plan."

In May 2023, SHEIN launched the "Rare Attraction" million seller plan. Under this project, SHEIN plans to help 10,000 global merchants, including those from China, achieve annual sales exceeding one million US dollars within the next three years, and help 100,000 small and medium-sized merchants achieve annual sales of 100,000 US dollars.

More than ten years ago, SHEIN founder Xu Yantian made the most critical decision since the company's inception: to stop the operation of over a dozen independent cross-border e-commerce sites for different categories and focus on doing a good job in fashion women's wear. Just a decade later, SHEIN has grown into a unicorn with a valuation of 66 billion US dollars. After stabilizing the sales of the original self-owned brand SHEIN, the company has identified a new growth engine—helping sellers from around the world sell their products worldwide.

Pushing the "multi-mode platform" will perhaps be crucial for SHEIN's further development in the future. Sharing mature capabilities with more suppliers, traders, and brand merchants worldwide has also brought greater opportunities to SHEIN itself.

Different from other cross-border e-commerce platforms, SHEIN's platform model provides two modes of operation: agent operation and independent operation. For small and medium-sized sellers without overseas third-party platform sales and operational experience, SHEIN's agent operation service will provide comprehensive services including product operation, warehousing, logistics, customer service, and after-sales, allowing sellers to focus more on the product aspects they excel in; while for brand merchants with independent operational experience, they can independently manage aspects such as product selection, shelving, marketing strategies, sales, inventory, and logistics, and SHEIN will provide corresponding platform resources and brand-building experience.

Whether it's independent operation or agent operation mode, SHEIN's platform can help sellers go global in a more worry-free manner and become the "steward" for sellers to easily tap into the international blue ocean market. Data shows that China's cross-border e-commerce import and export have grown nearly tenfold in the past five years. SHEIN, as the champion of the 2022 global shopping app download list, has a particularly young female user group with high willingness to try new things and low cost of recommendation, providing sellers with continuously growing user demand and orders. And with zero rent, zero entry fees, no need for promotional marketing and operating costs, it is also considered by the industry as an excellent period suitable for entry.

02

Becoming the "think tank"

Empowering sellers with international market secrets

In Ben's eyes, SHEIN's platform model has brought him tremendous traffic, rapidly generated orders, and provided support for difficult points at various stages including training, operational tools, delivery, and settlement. It is both professional and worry-free, making it essential for merchants like Ben who are tasting the flavor of overseas e-commerce from 0 to 1.

Similar to Ben's situation, Fangyuan is also a novice in cross-border e-commerce, having transitioned from being a university teacher to the foreign trade industry after 2019, selling small commodities including nail stickers, nail tools, makeup tools, and makeup organizers. But before meeting SHEIN's buyer, Fangyuan's overseas business was not very smooth.

"Because earlier on in product selection, I relied entirely on my own feelings and based on the preferences of domestic consumers and factories, I put on the shelves many nail stickers that were not suitable for the target market, and, as a result, the products once stagnated, and the business fell into a predicament," Fangyuan said.

In August 2022, Fangyuan met SHEIN's buyer. At the suggestion of SHEIN's buyer, Fangyuan discovered the "huge misjudgment" in its previous selection mindset. "Asian users who wear nail art like finished products; they do not need any DIY and solve daily dressing problems in a lazy way. However, North American users prefer personalized, brightly colored, and high-profile DIY, making products such as bare nail art, nail stickers and tools for DIY, and nail art sets more necessary," Fangyuan said.

Realizing the root of the problem and swiftly adjusting the new product marketing mindset, Fangyuan's nail art orders saw an explosive growth after experiencing a lull, "When we first joined SHEIN, our monthly sales were only around 10,000 yuan. After shelves were adjusted based on the market insights provided by the platform, our monthly sales can now reach 1.1 million yuan, nearly 70 times the growth compared to a year ago," said Fangyuan.

In the process of exploration, Fangyuan has already mastered a lot of knowledge about the overseas market. For him, SHEIN can guide him in his product direction using market feedback, providing market insights, product and market strategies, and other enablement.

In the future, Fangyuan plans to increase his innovation efforts, invest more in product innovation, form innovation, patent innovation, to free himself and his company employees from the fierce competition of low-brain prices. And SHEIN's long-term experience in copyright protection, provided training, daily risk reminders, and screening are also helping him and his team. In Fangyuan's view, once he has unique, differentiated, innovative, and value-added advantages in products and brands, there will be greater and longer-term development space.

03

Bringing Seller to Soar with Long-term Thinking

Zhou Yunbin is a cross-border e-commerce seller specializing in photo frames. In the past one or two years, Zhou Yunbin felt the emergence of new cross-border platforms on the domestic market. But so far, Zhou Yunbin has only chosen SHEIN's platform.

In weighing the pros and cons among many platforms, the most crucial factor for him is the ability to do business stably and in the long run. In his view, the SHEIN platform meets his needs and is suitable for long-term operation.

Zhou Yunbin believes that the governance rules of the SHEIN platform are more strict, and also help sellers to predict in advance the potential product, operation, and legal and regulatory considerations, as well as potential risks in various local markets overseas, in order to improve the safety of operations and help sellers achieve more compliant and long-term stable business development. "Although the mature governance of the platform may eliminate some sellers, the overall environment is better, and those who persist are the winners. I also believe that victory will favor those who take a long-term view," Zhou Yunbin said firmly.

Fang Yuan also agrees with Zhou Yunbin's point of view. When it comes to the mainstream cross-border e-commerce platform environment now, Fang Yuan lists in detail the "red and black list" that he often discusses with peers in Shenzhen. He chose SHEIN because the latter's traffic pool, smooth delivery, settlement efficiency, platform service quality, and the final order results have all exceeded his expectations.

In the cross-border market, sellers are most concerned about inadvertently facing huge losses or hidden risks due to not understanding the changing market trends, local customs, laws and regulations, and various potential risks in each new market.

Even for a steady and thoughtful cross-border person like Fang Yuan, the profound market insight and deep experience in cultivating overseas markets provided by the platform are needed to help avoid the "blood and sweat" lessons and to navigate the "thorny jungle."

It can be seen that whether it is Ben, who is exploring overseas business from 0 to 1, or Fang Yuan, who is gradually exploring the direction of the brand and is deeply exploring the secrets of cross-border e-commerce, or Zhou Yunbin, who is further building moats with SHEIN's flexible production and digital capabilities, the platform model built by SHEIN is helping more Chinese manufacturers create a new chapter in overseas business.

From starting with its own brand, to continuously empowering suppliers, driving digital transformation of the industry, and today, increasing the platform model and continuously empowering merchants throughout the life cycle, it can be seen that SHEIN has been committed to improving efficiency and creating value for ten years. Perhaps all of this is SHEIN's best answer to "long-termism."