Good morning. Online retailer Shein has made a mint with ultrafast fashion – more on that below, along with Trump’s Second Amendment pledge and Toronto’s summer storm. But first:
A Shein pop-up in Ottawa in May.Blair Gable/Reuters
Yesterday’s inflation numbers confirmed what we already know from our bank accounts: Living costs are still pricier than they used to be. Grocery bills climbed at an annual pace of 2.1 per cent in June. Rents rose nearly 9 per cent and mortgage interest costs hiked 22 per cent. Car and home insurance are up, too.
Statistics Canada says prices are now falling in the home goods and clothing industries. But these aren’t the sort of savings you’ll get on Temu, the Chinese-owned bargain housewares site that promises you can “shop like a billionaire.” And they definitely aren’t the discounts you’ll find on its cousin Shein, an app that’s cornered nearly a fifth of the ultrafast fashion retail market. On Shein, you can buy a floral dress for $11.39 and a going-out top for $5.49. I spied a colour-block bikini for $1.80. It’s proving to be irksome competition for Amazon, which just announced its own bargain section with direct shipping from China.
All those astonishingly cheap clothes add up: Shein reportedly earned US$45-billion last year and is eyeing a potential listing on the London Stock Exchange. But even if we’d rather not contemplate this while we’re busy adding to cart, a six-buck crop top brings with it serious costs – to our environment, our landfills and, especially, to Shein’s workers, who regularly log 75-hour weeks for far below a living wage. My colleagues at Lately, one of The Globe and Mail’s podcasts, covered these costs in a recent episode. I spoke with Lately’s host, Vass Bednar, to unpack Shein’s massive rise.
More than a third of Canadians shopped on Shein in the past year, but for those of us who haven’t, what’s the experience like?
Shein’s app has been called addictive. Even their web version is visually noisy and engaging, with lots of discounts available through coupons. Like the social-media experiences we are used to, there’s personalized curation through a For You page. They also make claims about the remaining inventory of an item that was recently sold, which can make it seem more appealing through its popularity and create a sense of urgency.
On TikTok, the tag #Sheinhaul – used for people unboxing their Shein purchases – has been viewed more than 14 billion times. How else has social media boosted the company’s success?
There’s also the growing popularity of social commerce, which is the ability to purchase something directly from or through social media, like clicking on the dress of an influencer in your feed. The friction to purchase at Shein is really reduced.
I hadn’t realized that posting a review on Shein is literal currency: You earn points, which translate to dollars, for every review, and more points if that review gets likes. What does that mean for consumers trying to navigate this site?
The gamification of shopping feels really new in a Canadian context. Historically, we’ve taken a more utilitarian approach to shopping online: We go to a site, search for an item that we already know we are interested in, and then make comparisons based on pricing, availability and reviews. Shein’s platform introduces new incentives for people to populate their site with reviews, and sort of changes the arrow: Their algorithm is suggesting stuff to you. It’s dangerously fun – in a way that shopping at Canadian Tire just isn’t.
When a company like Shein is so clearly prioritizing affordability and speed, what aren’t they prioritizing?
The speediness of ultrafast fashion comes from the technology that can respond to trends, or even learn from the search bar and what images people are engaging with. Shein can release between 500 to 2,000 new clothing designs every day. The trade-off is more waste, pollution, overstretched air cargo – Shein ships about 5,000 tonnes a day – and creative evasion of trade tariffs. In Canada, you pay a duty on anything over $150.
Is Canada doing anything to get tougher on the costs of ultrafast fashion?
This summer, France approved a bill that places modest fines per individual item of clothing to offset the environmental impact of fast fashion. Canada is getting tougher on greenwashing, where companies make inflated or false claims about the environmental friendliness of their product or service. This could be a policy tool used in the ultrafast fashion space.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
A flooded Don Valley Parkway.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
An intense summer storm in Toronto yesterday led to flooded roads and highways, a massive power outage, serious transit delays and many soggy basements. Read more here (and see more scenes from across the city here).
At home: Ground crews have started to battle the blaze near Labrador City, N.L., but as wildfires burn across the country, it’s been hard to get more help.
Abroad: Donald Trump’s brush with a bullet will not alter his commitment to gun rights, one senior adviser assured the U.S. Concealed Carry Association in Milwaukee.
On the job: The number of Canadian federal workers hit a new high in 2024, but thousands of cuts are in the works.
On the tube: Smart money is on The Bear to dominate today’s Emmy nominations – so let’s check in with scene-stealer-slash-chef Matty Matheson on how he balances fame with the farm.
