OPINION: SHEIN is better than Fashion Nova (2024)

Northern Star File Photo | Summer Fitzgerald

SHEIN, an online store, has recently become a main source of fast fashion as it is heavily promoted across social media platforms through “SHEIN Hauls”.

By JaMaria'h Crider, Columnist
February 3, 2022

SHEIN and Fashion Nova are two online stores that almost every girl shops at when they are looking to get “fye” for a day. Although we are not sponsored by either of these brands, it’s still a debate on which store is most preferred. Fashion Nova, unlike SHEIN, started off extremely busy. A lot of girls shopped at Fashion Nova before they even knew what SHEIN was. As someone who shops on both sites, it’s hard to determine which site is actually the best to shop on.

All day, back and forth I switch between Fashion Nova and SHEIN. The funny part about shopping on both sites is that they sell the same exact clothes. Although it is clear that both sites get clothes from the same vendor, SHEIN will always be a better pick when shopping for cute clothes.

To begin, SHEIN is way cheaper than Fashion Nova.

Shopping at Fashion Nova can be expensive. If you fill the cart up with at least 20 items, you’re looking at $200 or more. If you go on SHEIN and fill your cart up with 20 items, you’re looking at $100-$150 at most.

Even when Fashion Nova puts a few items on sale, those sale prices are usually the prices of SHEIN’s clothes without a sale. I mean, the girls love a good sale. The girls that get it, get it and the girls that don’t, don’t. A deal is always your best friend. That’s exactly why SHEIN would be the best place to shop if you’re looking to be stylish on a budget.

Not only is SHEIN more affordable, but SHEIN’s products ship out almost always within the next day. Fashion Nova, on the other hand, takes about a week or so to ship out. Personally, I’ve ordered from both sites and I received my package from SHEIN within a week. Fashion Nova took a little over two weeks.

When you shop online, you want to order from somewhere that will get your order to you as soon as possible. Fashion Nova is a more popular website so it likely takes longer because of higher order volume.

Fashion Nova does not have a live customer service representative on its website. SHEIN, on the other hand, has an actual button located on its website named “customer service.” It’s really beneficial to have this somewhere where customers can see it. Although most people don’t have problems when ordering products online, it’s very reliable and helpful to customers to know that if they have an issue, they can get help.

If you’re looking to shop somewhere that has fast shipping, cheap prices for the cutest clothing, and somewhere that actually has help on their website, I suggest that you shop at SHEIN. Fashion Nova is a good quality website and it’s higher in popularity, but it’s not like SHEIN.

What is the point of paying more for something just because of what website it came from? SHEIN is the best website to purchase cute, stylish, and cheap products. As a matter of fact, I’m on my way to purchase something from SHEIN right now.

OPINION: SHEIN is better than Fashion Nova (2024)

FAQs

Is Shein or Fashion Nova cheaper? ›

Shein vs Fashion: Which is Cheaper

You can discover affordable clothing at both stores, but here's what you should note: First, Fashion Nova is much more expensive than SHEIN. The cost of shopping at Fashion Nova is high. At Fashion NOVA, if you add at least 20 items to your cart, you should plan to spend $200 or more.

What is so special about Shein? ›

It's much cheaper to manufacture clothes in China than it is in the U.S. This is why SheIn can afford to set lower price points than other clothing brands can. At SheIn, you get what you pay for. SheIn uses lower-quality materials to make their clothing, which keeps costs down and prices low.

Does Fashion Nova ship faster than Shein? ›

Not only is SHEIN more affordable, but SHEIN's products ship out almost always within the next day. Fashion Nova, on the other hand, takes about a week or so to ship out. Personally, I've ordered from both sites and I received my package from SHEIN within a week. Fashion Nova took a little over two weeks.

How good or bad is Shein? ›

Is Shein a scam? Shein is a reputable online retailer. If you're shopping from the US they have a great return policy (free return shipping on the first return package from your order within 30 days). Shein is one of the fastest growing online retailers (making the front page of the Wall Street Journal in summer 2021).

Why are items from Shein so cheap? ›

By outsourcing labor, clothing retailers can cut costs and boost profits by paying workers less. And, when labor costs are cut, product costs can be cut, too, leading to super affordable clothing. In short, Shein produces its clothes in generic wholesale factories to keep its costs at a minimum.

Is Shein actually cheap? ›

Shein is an inexpensive online retailer that is based in China. However, there are talks of Shein opening brick-and-mortar stores too. They feature trendy clothing for incredibly low prices. I've ordered more than $600 worth of clothing from them over the years.

Who uses Shein the most? ›

Shein US users

The US is Shein's second largest market by total usage (behind Brazil) and its largest by revenue.

Where is Shein most popular? ›

Top Countries
  • United States. 36.24% 1.56%
  • Brazil. 12.90% 2.67%
  • France. 6.42% 9.30%
  • Spain. 5.71% 6.68%
  • Canada. 4.25% 5.60%

Is Shein successful in the US? ›

On a year-over-year basis, Shein was the only fast fashion company in our analysis that experienced U.S. sales growth in November 2022, with an increase of 9 percent. Sales at ASOS declined 2 percent year-over-year, while both H&M and Zara declined 10 percent.

Who owns Shein? ›

Shein is owned by parent company Nanjing Lingtian Information Technology, although the company's ownership is frequently branded a mystery. It remains a private company, with four major shareholders so far: JAFCO Asia, IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital China, and Tiger Global Management.

Is Fashion Nova from China? ›

Fashion Nova is an American fast fashion retail company.

Who owns Fashion Nova? ›

Richard Saghian is best known as the founder and CEO of fast-fashion company Fashion Nova, but he's also racked up some record-breaking real estate.

Is Shein 100% safe? ›

Shein appears to be a safe site, in that they don't steal your payment information or identity. It also seems to be trusted by users worldwide, from South Africa to the UK and from Australia to Canada, which suggests that most people receive the products they order.

What are the negatives on Shein? ›

Let's look at the sustainability of their materials. Dangerous levels of lead and other toxic chemicals have been found in SHEIN clothing. These chemicals are bad for workers, bad for the planet, and bad for the consumers who purchase SHEIN's clothes, whether new or second hand.

Is Shein really popular? ›

Taking the fashion world by storm, Shein is renowned as the largest e-commerce only fashion retailer globally and has become a retailer used by millions of consumers everywhere on a regular basis.

Why do people still buy from Shein? ›

Some said they like to shop at SHEIN because of the wide selection of clothes for sale. To keep up with the latest trends, SHEIN adds 6000 new styles to their site daily, which keeps consumers like Lihle Simane coming back for more. “I'm a shopaholic. I buy clothes every month, it's part of my budget,” she says.

Who makes clothes for Shein? ›

The company mainly sourced its clothing from China's wholesale clothing market in Guangzhou. However, Shein became a fully integrated retailer in 2014 when it secured its supply chain system. Now, the company utilizes a network of manufacturing partners and suppliers to make and deliver its products.

How much does Shein pay their workers? ›

The documentary reported Shein garment workers are paid as little as four cents per clothing item in work shifts that can last up to 18 hours.

How does Shein treat their workers? ›

Many also worked without contracts or minimum wage requirements, thereby allowing the company to reportedly fail to pay its employees properly. Channel4's documentary, Inside The Shein Machine, sent undercover cameras to film factory workers who were forced to pull 17-hour shifts to make hundreds of garments a day.

What does Shein mean? ›

Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname or artificial name from Yiddish sheyn 'fine beautiful'.

Where is Shein located in USA? ›

If you are from the US and ordering through the app, Shein will automatically get your orders from their warehouse in the US. It is located in Los Angeles. The clothes from their warehouse in Foshan are shipped to their LA warehouse.

Why Shein is so popular in USA? ›

They're cheaper than most secondhand clothing and of such low quality that it's unlikely they'll survive multiple owners. The fact that Shein is using data from secondhand sales to inform what to reproduce shows a complete lack of willingness to slow production. It's just market research by another name.”

What age group is Shein for? ›

Distribution of global visitors to shein.com in December 2022, by age
CharacteristicShare of visitors
18-2427.2%
25-3429.42%
35-4417.9%
45-5411.95%
2 more rows
Jan 23, 2023

What rank is Shein for? ›

In the Fashion market in the United States, shein.com is ranked #1 with > US$5,000m in 2022. Therefore, shein.com accounts for 0.0% - 5.0% of eCommerce net sales in this category. The top stores are shein.com, macys.com and walmart.com.

Where are Shein's clothes from? ›

Shein's factories are based in Guangzhou, China.

What year did Shein become popular? ›

SHEIN was first created in 2008 and gained massive popularity during the pandemic, where most of us were looking to purchase clothing online while adhering to a tight budget.

How many clothes does Shein make a day? ›

3. Business Model. Shein updates its website with an average of 6,000 new items every day. The company tests the market performance of these items by producing a few at a time and then mass-producing them when they take off.

Do Americans use Shein? ›

Shoppers taking photos at a Shein pop-up store in New York in October. Shein has seen its popularity soar in the United States as its trendy apparel wins over customers. Temu and Shein are taking off in the United States, topping app stores and creating a frenzy with consumers.

What did Shein used to be called? ›

Shein was founded over a decade ago in 2008 in Nanjing China by Chris Xu an American born Chinese graduate of Washington University. The retailer was originally called SheInside but the name was shortened in 2015 to Shein. 2. Shein sells cheap, really cheap clothing.

Who is the CEO of Shein? ›

Xu is the founder and chief executive of Shein Group, the Chinese fashion retailer that was valued at $100 billion in an April 2022 funding round. The online seller was founded in Nanjing, China in 2008 and by 2022 was the largest fast fashion company in the US market. Shein Group had revenue of $22.7 billion in 2022.

Who buys Shein products? ›

The online-only fashion brand is based in China and sells mostly to young women in the United States, though it also sells clothes for men.

Is the owner of Shein a billionaire? ›

Chris Xu, the founder and billionaire behind the company, primarily owns SHEIN. SHEIN leverages a real-time retail business model, where fashion trends are created out of social media platforms like TikTok, which are quickly turned around as products available for shopping online.

What did Shein originally sell? ›

He started out by selling wedding dresses online. In 2012, he diversified into womenswear and later changed the brand name to Shein. Today, Shein also offers kid's and men's clothing and ships to 220 countries around the world.

Who is Fashion Nova biggest competitors? ›

Top 10 Fashion Nova competitors
  • SHEIN.
  • Poshmark.
  • I Saw It First.
  • Verishop.
  • Selfridges Group.
  • PrettyLittleThing.
  • Asos.
  • Modivo.

Why are Fashion Nova jeans so cheap? ›

They are able to offer affordable prices by maintaining a fast and efficient supply chain. Fashion Nova produces a large volume of clothing in different sizes and styles, and they have established relationships with manufacturers that produce clothing at low costs.

Who owns Zara? ›

Amancio Ortega of Spain is one of the wealthiest clothing retailers in the world. A pioneer in fast fashion, he cofounded Inditex, known for its Zara fashion chain, with his ex-wife Rosalia Mera (d.

Do the Kardashians wear Fashion Nova? ›

The Kardashian and Jenner sisters work with legacy brands like Estée Lauder, Calvin Klein, and Adidas, but Kourtney, Khloé, and Kylie have all been paid to wear Fashion Nova, and Kim has said openly that she shops at Zara and H&M.

How many times has Fashion Nova been sued? ›

Popular online retailer Fashion Nova has been hit with two class action lawsuits alleging it hides one, two and three-star reviews from its website to artificially inflate the prices of its products.

How rich is Fashion Nova? ›

The sprawling hilltop estate, complete with 21 bedrooms, a nightclub and multiple pools, is the type of purchase fit for a billionaire. Indeed, by Forbes' calculations, the fast fashion mogul is worth an estimated $1.4 billion.

Can you trust clothes from Shein? ›

Yes, Shein is a legitimate business and website. They employ nearly 10,000 employees worldwide and sell to over 150 countries. While the company started with humble beginnings in 2012, it is now considered the largest online-only fashion company in the world, having earned an estimated $10 billion in revenue in 2020.

Does Shein run small or big? ›

1) Check the Sizing Measurements

In my experience, clothes from Shein run small. While this isn't true across the board, 90% of the time I have found this to be the case. This is why checking the sizing is important. When you hover over a certain size on the page of the item you're interested in, measurements come up.

Should you wash the clothes you get from Shein? ›

Yes, for the most part, some —not all— Shein clothes can have toxic elements like lead and chemicals from dyes; thus, wash your Shein clothing hauls before wearing. Washing dilutes these dyes and chemicals, reducing the chances of an allergic reaction.

How ethically bad is Shein? ›

Despite gargantuan profits, SHEIN HAS been accused of stealing designs from small independent labels, selling offensive items including Islamic prayer rugs as decorative mats and swastika necklaces, selling items containing unsafe amounts of lead, and forcing garment workers to work in extremely unethical conditions.

How long does Shein take to deliver? ›

International Shipping
Shipping MethodShipping TimeCosts
standard shippingEstimated to be delivered on 06/20/2023 - 06/24/2023.Free Shipping Sitewide
express shippingEstimated to be delivered on 06/18/2023 - 06/20/2023.$12.90 Free - orders over $129.00

Is Shein a Chinese company? ›

Now, Shein, as a foreign company - especially, it is a Chinese company - when we have so many concern about national security associated with companies like TikTok, the same concern may also applies to Shein.

Why is Shein under fire? ›

The fast-fashion company has come under fire for accusations of mistreatment of Uyghurs, a marginalized group in China, and for allegedly falsifying reports of forced or underpaid labor of its supplier factories, some of which are allegedly located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.

What material is Shein clothes made of? ›

Shein clothing products are made from synthetic materials like polyester and nylon. Synthetic materials are created by the acquisition of raw materials.

Why are Fashion Nova clothes so cheap? ›

They are able to offer affordable prices by maintaining a fast and efficient supply chain. Fashion Nova produces a large volume of clothing in different sizes and styles, and they have established relationships with manufacturers that produce clothing at low costs.

What is the disadvantage of Shein? ›

They use harmful materials. One of the reasons Shein can offer such cheap clothes, is because they use a lot of synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon. You can get rid of your fast fashion pieces after one season, but clothing made from polyester take 20 to 200 years to decompose.

What is the average price of clothes on Shein? ›

According to a survey from Shein, nearly half of customers have sold their Shein items on resale platforms and more than half have purchased a previously owned Shein item. Shein was not noted as a listed brand in the Depop survey for 2021; the average price of Shein items on the platform is $3-$5.

What is the best thing to buy from Shein? ›

One of the best things to shop for at SHEIN are tops. They have has an extensive collection of trendy and affordable tops. From casual tees to statement-making blouses, wide range of options makes it easy to find the perfect top that won't break the bank.

Where is SHEIN clothing made? ›

The business model works like Amazon—a sprawling online marketplace brings together about 6,000 clothing factories in China under Shein's label, while internal management software collects near-instant data about which items are selling and which aren't to visibly boost the popular items.

Where is Fashion Nova ranked? ›

In the Fashion market in the United States, fashionnova.com is ranked #28 with > US$750m in 2022. Therefore, fashionnova.com accounts for < 0% of eCommerce net sales in this category. The top stores are shein.com, macys.com and walmart.com.

What problems is Shein facing? ›

Shein is facing challenges from tariffs, competition, declining revenue growth and user data, and a stricter quality control mechanism for suppliers. Shein, the cross-border e-commerce giant, is facing mounting challenges that could significantly impact its business, profitability, and valuation.

What size is XL in Shein? ›

It offers sizes XL to 5X—with a caveat. According to the sizing chart, everything is at least two sizes smaller than typical plus sizes. At Shein, 0XL is the equivalent of a size 12 instead of the usual size 16, and a 5X is a size 22, not the expected size 30 to 32.

When did Shein become popular? ›

SHEIN was first created in 2008 and gained massive popularity during the pandemic, where most of us were looking to purchase clothing online while adhering to a tight budget.

Why do people buy from Shein? ›

Shein can offer such low prices because it's exclusively an online retailer, so it has fewer overhead costs. It can quickly capitalize on trends without worrying as much about inventory. Shein can also do this because it controls its own supply chain.

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