What distinguishes SHEIN from traditional retailers is our on-demand business model, which strives to minimise wastage from the start. Overproduction occurs due to a mismatch of demand and supply – the fashion industry produced excess stock worth between US$70 billion and US$140 billion in sales in 2023, according to a 2025 report by Mckinsey & Company.

Leveraging our digitalised supply chain and monitoring demand signals from our customers from the way they engage with our app and website,…

In line with leveraging our edge in innovation, we invest in the research and development of manufacturing technology and production processes that consume less water and encourage the adoption of these technologies and practices among our suppliers.

For example, traditional denim manufacturing is known for being resource-intensive, requiring vast amounts of water and energy for processes such as dyeing, bleaching, and washing.…

Since 2022, SHEIN has been a signatory of World Circular Textiles Day, together with a global coalition of brands, suppliers, and other organisations united in the common goal of achieving full circularity within the fashion and textile industry by 2050. We are therefore working together with all stakeholders across our value chain, from suppliers and employees to our valued customers, to explore strategies that aim to transform our operational practices and those of our supply chain partners…

Customers are increasingly prioritizing sustainability and seeking ways to extend the lifespan of their clothing. We encourage the prolonged use of our products and are committed to designing with circularity in mind. Our objective is to involve SHEIN customers in circular practices, moving away from the traditional “take, make, break, forsake” retail model.…

In 2022, SHEIN launched SHEIN Exchange, a peer-to-peer resale platform that enables customers to buy and sell pre-owned SHEIN items. SHEIN Exchange features user-friendly tools, such as automatic pre-population of product details, to facilitate the easy listing of items. Likewise, SHEIN customers looking to explore pre-loved styles can use the search and filter tools within the platform to create more targeted search results of the pre-loved items available for sale.

First launched in the USA,…

In 2024, we continued to run clothing collection programmes in markets such as Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, leveraging occasions like pop-ups where we provide a physical space for our customers to drop off their pre-loved clothing to be donated or recycled, conducting door-to-door collection services as part of social impact initiatives, or donating leftover stock from pop-ups and sample rooms.

In Japan, where we have a permanent physical…

In 2024, we also sought to reduce further textile waste generated in our own operations. We recovered a total of 40 tonnes of fabric, comprising garments selected for quality control sampling and therefore cannot be sold, garments produced as a result of internal research and development projects, and fabric cutting waste within our SHEIN-operated facilities.…

SHEIN is committed to finding sustainable solutions to address the issue of discarded textiles. Since 2022, we have supported efforts to tackle global textile waste management and further the development of a circular economy in textiles through the SHEIN Extended Producer Responsibility Fund (which has since been consolidated under SHEIN Foundation).

We have continued to support The Or Foundation’s work in Ghana, and have made a grant to the UnTours Foundation to support textile waste…

Our culture thrives on a test-and-scale approach in the product development process. Our employees are encouraged to proactively identify areas for improvement in our current products or new offerings, conduct thorough research, and propose innovative solutions. These solutions undergo a testing phase, during which small batches are initially launched to gauge customer responses, and thereafter they are scaled up in production to meet market demand.…

Established in 2022, SHEIN’s Centre of Innovation for Garment Manufacturing (CIGM) focuses on developing waste reduction and efficiency-enhancing technologies that can be standardised and scaled across our entire supply chain. The CIGM engages in garment manufacturing tool and equipment development, focusing on intelligent production and automation, to improve production quality and efficiency, achieve cost savings, and machinery adjustments to make it easier for supplier personnel to operate.…

Scaling textile-to-textile recycling will be an important part of our circular transition, as well as that of the fashion industry as a whole.

As we support efforts to ramp up textile-to-textile recycling capacities to accelerate the transition, we understand that the key to scaling is finding the right practical solutions that work for our business.

Some of the initiatives aimed at supporting this include SHEIN's multi-year research partnership with Donghua University, a university…

SHEIN’s partnership with Aloqia has continued to grow since 2022. As of 2024, Aloqia’s proprietary software has been integrated into SHEIN’s sourcing system, enhancing the flow of information between platforms about deadstock materials available for designers to use.

This integration enables more efficient identification of fabrics that meet our strict sourcing criteria, procurement of deadstock resources, and measurement of environmental impact savings from using these materials instead of…