author| Hill
As soon as the news of SHEIN opening a store in Paris came out, it was protested by local people *.
Recently, in the Marais district of Paris, the crowd raised hands "Stop Shein""Mode à jeter"Slogans and chanting slogans marched in the street to boycott the entry of China fast fashion brand SHEIN into the local veteran department store BHV.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Paris has publicly expressed opposition to this cooperation. "Contrary to Paris's concepts of ecology and social responsibility";
Trade unions rave that SHEIN's business model will “Destroying the French indigenous textile industry”；
Some French independent design brands in the BHV mall even angrily withdrew their cabinets, “It’s impossible to live with such a brand!”The New York Times reports, Shoe brand Odaje emptied its booth on the first floor of BHV, and French shirt brand Figaret Paris withdrew about 1500 items...
SHEIN has long conquered the world’s youth’s wardrobe with extreme cost-effectiveness, but has not been recognized by capital markets and environmentalists. In recent years, SHEIN has turned to U.S. shares, British shares, and Hong Kong shares to seek IPO, but the path to the listing has fallen. “Express labor” “environmental pollution” “algorithm overconsumption”Under the label, SHEIN has always had a hard time finding breakthroughs to further scale in global markets.
SHEIN opened the store in Paris, which was obviously a self-rescue move to get rid of bad reviews from the outside world and reshape the brand's reputation, but it entered a difficult mode at the beginning.
At the beginning of October, SHEIN officials announced plans to open stores in Paris, Dijon, Grenoble, Reims, Angers and Limoges. Among them, in addition to Paris stationed in BHV, the rest of the city is stationed in Galeries Lafayette department store.
However, the news came out that at the first stop in Paris, BHV Marais, SHEIN was hard resisted by forces from all walks of life.
BHV Department Store is backed by SGM Group, which is also the parent company of Galeries Lafayette. Galeries Lafayette mainly sells luxury brands, representing the fashion aesthetics of the upper class of Paris;BHV is biased towards the middle class, positioning itself as a "life aesthetics" brand, selling all categories of products such as clothing, home furnishing, beauty, and daily use.
For many French people, BHV and Galeries Lafayette symbolize the refined aesthetics of upper society, while SHEIN's intrusion is an out-and-out "cultural invasion":A fast fashion e-commerce platform that is not fashionable enough and is rough enough, and is located in the local store store store with great tastes, is undoubtedly a direct declaration of war on the French "spirit of fashion".
As a global fashion retail center, the French market has an invisible, natural industry barrier, cultural-protected indigenous designers, retailers, and high fashion speech.SHEIN (a T-shirt costing $5-10), which is known for its ultimate cost performance, is priced much lower than that of local brands. Under the background of the current global economic downturn, many young Europeans have already turned to Chinese e-commerce brands with high quality and low price such as SHEIN. If forced to face competition with SHEIN, local French brands may lose their premium space, and their profitability will be further impacted.
BHV employees who protested said: “Just two years ago, BHV promised that all the products we sold were made in France, or at least hand-made.
Therefore, the pressure of the mayor of Paris, the highest level of trade unions and brand colleagues, around “SHEIN factory pressures labor force” “production process environmental pollution serious” “brand green whitening”Launched to directly expose the hot spots of public opinion that the local people are concerned about, and jointly push this demonstration to a climax.
In fact, this is not the first time that the French have resisted foreign fast fashion.
多年来，Zara、H&M、Primark也频频因供应链、环境问题受到批评，但它们仍在法国经营顺畅。为什么偏偏SHEIN遇到了更大阻力？
Spicy believes that from the perspective of the French, there are three reasons:
一，算法驱动实时设计的SHEIN属于比Zara、H&M还要快一个量级的“超快时尚”：Zara每两周上新，而SHEIN的生产周期能够压缩到3天一轮。据路透社，“2022年末至2023年末，SHEIN在美国市场推出150万件产品，大约是Zara的37倍，H&M的65倍。”
Sophie Abriat, a well-known French writer and fashion reporter, said: “Superspeed fashion is an extreme waste, and the essence is a short-lived and radical marketing strategy.
At the same time, plagiarism of designs and infringement of designers' intellectual property rights are also issues that SHEIN has been repeatedly accused overseas, and it has been further concerned and amplified in France, which respects originality.
Second, the suppliers of "Zara" are concentrated in countries within the EU such as Spain and Portugal, which both belong to the European industrial system; SHEIN relies on factories in China and Southeast Asia, and there is a natural industrial exclusion relationship.
Third, SHEIN is highly digital and relies on online operations, which brings limited potential revenue to the local real economy.Three years ago, SHEIN opened the world’s first permanent store in Japan. "On-site fitting-Scan product QR code-Order on official website or App-Mail home"The showroom mode only focuses on brand and product display.
The specific business model of the new French stores has not yet been disclosed. If only the Japanese model continues, it means that local stores still produce, stock, and distribute outside of France, and that local employment, supply chain and tax incentives will be significantly lower than traditional entity retailers.
同时，从SHEIN营销现状来看，与Zara、H&M的品牌建设工作客观存在一定差距：
The formula of "algorithm + red + content e-commerce" prompted SHEIN to rise rapidly in the United States and other regions, but its long-term brand building is inadequate. So, when SHEIN knocked on the French fashion door, the past sparked viral content material, became the French complaint SHEIN's sword.
On TikTok,#SheinHaul (SHEIN spoils) is a place for young people to exchange SHEIN products. Internet celebrities have posted huge SHEIN express boxes here and displayed dozens of affordable SHEIN clothes at one time. However, these communication materials are now just a strong proof that the French people believe that SHEIN is not environmentally friendly enough, is a waste of resources, and is extreme consumerism.
Among the French consumer preferences, fashion is endowed with many additional values, including identity, value resonance, etc. Consumers need to see the unique culture, creativity and story behind each outfit. However, so far, relying on the supply chain to kill the overwhelmed SHEIN, the product strength is king, and the brand strength is still late to be established.
同为外来者，Zara、H&M要聪明得多。Zara与巴黎艺术学院、环保组织合作，H&M推出法国本土设计师联名系列产品，积累了本土化的产品和品牌故事，从而加深了品牌与法国人的情感绑定。
Referring to Pop Mart, going overseas to France and even other countries in the world, they actively link local designers to launch joint models, gradually integrating brand culture with local culture, and weakening the brand's "sense of intrusion" as an outsider.
In the long run, SHEIN will need to find a “cultural ally” from the outside to create a “brand story” from the inside as a cultural bridge to get rid of the strong opposition between the local fashion system.
The road into France was destined to not go smoothly, and SHEIN was aware of it.
In July this year, France imposed a €40 million fine on SHEIN for “misleading commercial conduct” – discounting false advertising issues – and in September, the French national data protection authority ordered SHEIN to pay a €15 million fine on the grounds of breach of data protection rules.
Foreign media reported that in the past few months, SHEIN's many pop-up shop activities in France have not gone smoothly:
In Dijon, before the opening of the SHEIN pop-up shop, people maliciously scrawled "Shein tue" on the exterior wall of the store "exploitation, travail forcé, escapage, pollution"(exploitation, forced labor, environmental pollution). In Nice, the news of SHEIN's flash mob had just been released, and local Internet celebrities angrily boycotted it. The mayor publicly stated that "SHEIN is not welcome in Nice." Under pressure from all walks of life, the establishment stage of the Nice flash shop project was hastily concluded... For many months, French media frequently reported on SHEIN's negative issues, plunging it into a deeper and deeper whirlpool of public opinion.
Clearly counter-ventilator, why SHEIN was solitary and preferred to officially open a shop in France?
As seen this time, SHEIN was valued at hundreds of billions in a round of funding in 2022, and it was the high-light moment of SHEIN, preparing to be listed in the U.S. stock market. In the consumer market, SHEIN, with its low prices, has harvested a lot of loyal favors in North America. But three years later, SHEIN has failed to be listed, and according to estimates, the value has also fallen to $30 billion. By the US Congress, with Temu, and now under heavy tariff pressure, SHEIN's profitability in the U.S. market has declined significantly, not as much as before.
Therefore, even facing environmental issues, data waves, for the urgent need to open new markets for SHEIN, the layout of Europe is already a relatively good step.
In fact, in order to enrich brand culture and improve brand image, SHEIN has made many efforts in the past few years, including Launch high-end sub-brands such as MOTF, LUVLETTE, and SHEIN X, and support independent designers worldwide.At present, its sub-brands have indeed made a relatively distinct image division with the SHEIN main site at the product level and brand visual design level, and have also brought good short-term sales, but they continue the characteristics that SHEIN's product strength is better than brand strength., the performance of these sub-brands in building brand stories and culture is still mediocre.
At home, SHEIN continues to support supplier factories to help them improve their working environment, improve their efficiency and reduce resource waste. Obviously, it will take longer to precipitate before it can really help SHEIN reverse European public opinion.
Pepper Spicy believes that if it is possible to successfully enter the French offline channel, the role of SHEIN in promoting the brand is obvious:
First, for a long time, SHEIN, which is good at supply chain, has little to do with the "fashion industry". Nowadays, SHEIN can use the old French shopping malls to "gold plate" and realize the brand fashion transformation for the public; At the same time, strengthen contact with the fashion circle and strive for cooperation opportunities with well-known designers or well-known brands.
Second, face-to-face display of products through offline channels may help SHEIN reverse stereotypes such as shoddy products and repair relationships with local consumers.
The good news is that SHEIN is not a capital without negotiations, and its absolute power in e-commerce is very attractive to the French.——SGM Group President has said that the cooperation with SHEIN is mainly to With the strong potential of SHEIN online, it attracts more young consumers to its offline department stores, and also drives sales of other designer brands in the mall.
After the protests in *, SGM, which shares the pressure with SHEIN, once again stood firm and said it would not end cooperation :"We chose SHEIN because of our own innovative retail model."
In most brands annually launched two seasons of fashion, with a restrained number of SKU practicing "slow fashion" in France, "super fast fashion" SHEIN's opening officer undoubtedly announced a paper book.
This "war" is destined to not be successful, but for the enemy's belly-backed SHEIN, it is already the best solution to face the status quo.
At present, SHEIN leverages BHV as an "ally" for in-depth deployment of the French market. But in the long run, facing this commercial territory that is completely different from the American continent, SHEIN may pay more for its French expansion journey.
Surviving in Paris is only the first battle for SHEIN to restart its upward channel in the global market.