Shein is the most downloaded shopping app on South Africa’s Google Play store. And it isn’t even trying that hard.
The Singapore-based fast-fashion brand launched in the country at the foot of the continent during the Covid-19 pandemic and is expanding via word-of-mouth and by offering first-time buyer discounts. It has already caused such a stir that local retailers are spooked and regulators are investigating if it has exploited import tax loopholes when sending parcels to shoppers.
Shein, founded in China, is gaining a foothold in a nascent e-commerce market in the most industrialized country in Africa and is squaring up to US giants Walmart Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., who want to do the same.Walmart has tried to win local hearts the traditional way, buying into domestic retail group Massmart Holdings Ltd. more than a decade ago in an expensive move that so far has failed to live up to expectations.
South Africa has a growing middle class, nearly three quarters of the country has Internet access and more people live in concentrated urban areas than in most other nations in the region. E-commerce makes up about 4% of retail in the country meaning there are potential riches to be won. Last year the value of goods sold online by Massmart rose more than 90% to 2.3 billion rand , helping justify Walmart’s decision to buy out the unit in preparation to go head-to-head with arch rival Amazon. Though it has yet to set a firm date for its retail launch in the country, Amazon has been advertising for local recruits in recent months.
“We realized that the future battle was going to be against the Sheins and Amazons of the world,” he said. “Normally this takes two years, but we knew we had to push to do it quicker than that and do it well.”
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