Shein, the one-time cheap clothing colossus, has announced its plans for an IPO. If you could look at it from the vantage point of a few years ago, the valuation Shein is currently shooting for is, well, not great.<\/p>\n
The Wall Street Journal wrote in 2022<\/a>, back when Shein was on top of the world, that it had just received a funding round of $1-2 billion that placed its value at $100 billion<\/a>. According to Reuters yesterday<\/a>, its latest plans value it at a little over a quarter of that: $27 billion.<\/p>\n The Nanjing-founded, Singapore-headquartered, but largely Guangzhou factory-powered<\/a> apparel company started out as a wedding dress company in 2008<\/a>, but its creators soon discovered a lucrative alternative business model: selling less-than-top quality goods at rock-bottom prices to eager young Americans thanks to tariff exemptions on low-priced items. In the 20-teens, Shein climbed the ranks of similar companies that largely marketed themselves on Instagram<\/a>. Then it shot up to juggernaut status<\/a> during the Covid-19 pandemic when shopping from home was often the only shopping customers did.<\/p>\n But then Trump\u2019s trade policies came along, in particular the 2025 abolition<\/a> of the de minimis tariff exemption that took Shein\u2019s prices from cheap to so-cheap-you-can\u2019t-resist.<\/p>\n Last month, Shein reported a $99 million quarterly loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n