Amazon's Newest Competitors Are Stepping Into Its Territory

Shein, TikTok are seeking to poach Amazon's employees and building out workspaces in the same office tower

- Sebastian Herrera

Fast-fashion company Shein and TikTok's shopping unit are expanding in Amazon.com's territory, seeking ees and building out workspaces in the same Seattle-area office tower. The two companies are bolstering their staff at a 22-story tower near Seattle known as the Key Center, and both are recruiting current and former Amazon employees as they expand their U.S. logistics and supply-chain operations.

The move into Amazon's home city represents a new front in what has quickly grown into one of the tech giant's greatest retail threats. Shein, TikTok and e-commerce company Temu, all of which have Chinese roots and close ties to sellers in Asia where many products sold on Amazon originate, are investing heavily in U.S.online shopping.

TikTok launched a shopping tool on its app last year, and Shein has become America's largest fast-fashion seller. Many of the e-commerce products TikTok creators market on that platform are from Shein, though TikTok says hundreds of thousands of products come from other sellers.

Seattle has long been a hub for logistics talent because of Amazon's presence, said Will Gordon, a former Amazon executive and co-founder of Latchel, which sells home-maintenance services.

But companies that try to replicate Amazon's success aren't guaranteed to do well, Gordon said. Logistics firms like Flexport and now-defunct Convoy have relied on former Amazon talent and struggled.

"What works at Amazon may not work at another company," Gordon said. "The Amazon way-the process and metrics-driven approach-has to be adapted." Shein, which operates a large office in Los Angeles, appears to be just getting started in the Seattle area, with only a handful of employees there now, including head of logistics, Wei "Andy" Huang, who formerly worked at Amazon and Chinese conglomerate Alibaba.