This Chinese retail has relaunched itself in India under a new licensing deal withReliance, the brand was banned for five years due to its Chinese origin. Now has re-appeared as an app named SHEIN India Fast Fashion.

The Relaunch

The fast fashion brand, famous among youngsters has relaunched itself in India with the help of the biggest business conglomerate in India, Reliance. The conglomerate has signed a long-time deal with Shein. The app was launched on Saturday as a standalone.

A licensing fee will be paid by Reliance to use the brand name of Shein, without claiming any partnership or equity according to Reuters. This collaboration will allow the price-conscious consumers ofIndia.According to Reuters, the manufacturing of products will be at the local level, the production will adhere to Indias economic policies.

The new app, Shein India Fast Fashion has earned 10,000 downloads so far. The app welcomes users with pop-ups like The fashion OG (original) is back. Another message on the app read “We’re shipping in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. Pan-India shipping very soon,” As a launching deal, the app has announced free shipping on orders starting as low as Rs 350.

The 2020 Ban

In June 2020, the popular fast-fashion application was prohibited along with 53 other Chinese apps that were believed to engage in data theft. “upon receiving recent credible inputs that such apps pose a threat to sovereignty and integrity of India, the Government of India has decided to disallow the usage […] both [on] mobile and non-mobile Internet-enabled devices.” said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India, categorizing Shein app along with 59 other Chinese applications under section 69A of The Information Technology Act, 2000. The act gives power to issue directions for blocking public access of any information through any computer resource.

Following the ban, Shein released an official statement expressing the company’s commitment to complying with Indian regulations. They emphasized their focus on providing high-quality products at affordable prices for their customers and expressed hope to resume services in India as soon as possible.

The legalization of Shein in India

The license agreement covered the protection that ownership and control of the platform will always remain with RRVL through its wholly-owned subsidiary. As per the agreement, at all times, the platform will be hosted on infrastructure in India and all platform data will remain in India with Shein having no access to, or rights over, such data,” said Piyush Goyal Commerce & Industry Ministry on signing the deal with RRVL.

The deal was signed with Reliance Retail in 2023 after three years of ban.

The Shein History

Shein was originally founded in 2008 by Chris Xu in China and gained popularity for its affordable range of products. However, the brand faced backlash when claims about its mass production practices and environmental consequences came to light, raising significant concerns globally. In India, Shein’s operations came to an end due to disputes betweenChinaand India, which led to a ban on the application that remains in effect till the relaunch.