After being banned by the Indian government for five years, cross-border fashion e-commerce giant SHEIN successfully counterattacked and obtained approval from the Indian authorities to relist in India. This is also the first Chinese app to return to India since the Indian government's large-scale ban on Chinese apps.
Since June 2020, the Indian government has blocked apps and applications from China in six batches.
The latest update shows that the SHEIN India app was launched on January 27th and began operating on February 1st.
This time, SHEIN's return to India is not about fighting alone, but about partnering with local Indian enterprise giant Reliance Retail Ventures Limited. According to the agreement, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited retains full ownership and operational control of the platform in India, while SHEIN acts purely as a technology partner, primarily collecting service fees and not holding any equity. All operations will be fully authorized to Reliance Retail. The products on SHEIN India will be manufactured locally in India. According to the information provided by the Indian government to the parliament, SHEIN India's products will not only be sold locally in India, but also worldwide. It is reported that Reliance Retail is affiliated with India's second-largest conglomerate, Reliance Industries Group, and its CEO Mukesh Ambani is the richest man in Asia.
India was once an important battlefield for SHEIN. According to data, before being banned, SHEIN had over one million daily active users in India and processed up to 10000 orders per day. At the end of June 2020, India was SHEIN's top market in terms of global downloads, surpassing the United States and Saudi Arabia.
In addition, the potential of the Indian market should not be underestimated, which is also an important reason why SHEIN has been striving to return to the Indian market.
Since 2021, there have been frequent rumors in the industry that SHEIN is preparing to return. Now that the boots have landed, it remains to be seen whether SHEIN can continue its glory and once again dominate the Indian fashion e-commerce industry.