Shein is slow off the blocks in its second India innings

In the five years of its absence, local players caught up and altered the competitive landscape

- Sakshi Sadashiv & Vaeshnavi Kasthuri

Here’s a lot happening at online fast-fashion retailer Shein. The China-founded, Singapore-headquartered company is readying for multi-billion-dollar public listing in Hong Kong. It is in the middle of an aggressive revenue expansion that has market analysts downgrading shares of rivalssuch as H&M and Inditex, which owns the Zara brand.

But, here in India, more than six months after it relaunched partnering Reliance Retail Ventures, Shein is finding the going slower than from its earlier stint, when the firm and 58 apps from China were banned by the government in 2020.

Homegrown rivals and fashion industry executives tell Min¢ that in Shein’s absence, India’s fast-fashion and ‘Gen Z’-focused apparel business has accelerated with local players catching up. The break from India may have compromised the very core of Shein’s success—speed and variety.

The idea behind the Shein-Reliance licensing deal was that the Indian oil-to-retail conglomerate would handle all operations and production of the online giant’s rapidly-changing design catalogue. In other words, Reliance Retail would tap into India’s sprawling micro and small medium enterprise garments supply chain of over 25,000 units, per a report in