“Now I can go home reassured and confident about my partnership with Shein.” On screen, American influencer Dani Dmc smiles smugly. In this video posted in mid-June on her networks and those of the Shein US channel, she presented, with other influencers, behind the scenes of the factories of the Chinese online ready-to-wear brand. Invited by the fast fashion juggernaut, everyone is full of praise for the experience.
Supporting advertising music and your documentary, the Internet user can see them visit one of the Chinese brand’s warehouses, chat with the workers “who design the clothes”, or watch them themselves try their hand at preparing orders, all supervised by Shein employees. “I am a person who likes to perceive energies and I feel that the employees here feel good,” comments Dani Dmc on the return bus. “It doesn’t look like the big dehumanized factories, I even saw some employees listening to their music!” Adds her neighbor, delighted.
The atmosphere is therefore friendly, the protagonists all smiles… no more accusations around the forced labor of the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region of China, which would be exploited by the brand. Also forgotten are the criticisms of Shein, which allegedly encourages abusive overconsumption to the detriment of the environment, by adding more than 6,000 items to its site every day, sold at minimal prices.
These dark aspects of the brand had however been revealed in a documentary broadcast last October by the British channel Channel 4. But even if it means contradicting the information in the film, Dani Dmc and his colleagues assure him: they, they have lived ” a unique and real experience” during this organized trip. “As a consumer of Shein myself, I will be able to reassure my community, my friends and my family,” she continues, while posing in front of a commercial for the brand.
On his networks, Dani Dmc is followed by no less than 481,000 people on Instagram and almost 300,000 on TikTok. An audience likely to discover the additional content of Dani’s trip to China, including a video of his flight with free champagne, all without ever separating from his suitcase where the Shein logo is obvious. In total, the videos greatly exceed 100,000 views.
On Twitter, however, the strings of the marketing coup have been denounced since this weekend by a certain number of Internet users. “Look, a new episode of Black Mirror”, “They select influencers who do not formulate any criticism” or even “How can they claim that Shein employees have decent working conditions??”, protest most . Others even caricature the video to underline the absurdity of the positive discourse held by content creators.
It’s not the first time that Shein, which made nearly $30 billion in sales in 2022, has called on influencers to restore its reputation internationally. From the start, Western content creators have been among their main allies in promoting the brand to this market.
On TikTok alone, the hashtags “sheinhaul” and “shein” together reach 70 billion views. In these posts, influencers unpack their purchases made on the store’s site. And if, concerning this new promotional video, Dani Dmc claims not to have been paid by the brand for going to the factories, the trip seems entirely supported by Shein.
Last October, the Chinese online fashion giant even sent a letter to its valued partner influencers, assuring them to launch an investigation “to follow up on the allegation about the unacceptable working conditions of two of our suppliers”, assured the brand, referring to the revelations made in the documentary broadcast by Channel 4. The report denounced in particular the infernal days, of more than 18 hours, carried out by the workers.
Despite the criticisms, the brand’s digital strategy has proven effective enough to moderate the impact of controversy. According to the Reech agency, Shein would be the sixth most downloaded application in 2021 in France and second in the United States. In addition, it is one of the Fast Fashion brands most cited by influencers in France, in third position (18%), after Zara (40%) and H
To establish this growing popularity, Shein does not hesitate to deploy the great means and multiplies the ephemeral shops in France. Last May, for example, she opened one in the Marais district of Paris. With queues starting at 7 a.m. to enter the store, the operation turned out to be a success.
