Shein is gunning for the fast-fashion crown

The app that your teen cousin is probably scrolling through at this very moment is making moves to become even more dominant in the world of fast fashion.

Driving the news: Chinese online fast-fashion retailer Shein raised prices by over a third on some core products, a move analysts believe is meant to drive up revenue ahead of its IPO.

Shein is planning to list in London rather than the US, where it’s faced intense scrutiny from lawmakers and could have an initial valuation as high as £50 billion.

The company is still waiting to receive approval from Beijing to list outside of China.

Why it matters: Shein has surged ahead of rival fast-fashion retailers that came before it to become the industry leader. Last year, Shein notched total sales of US$32.2 billion. For comparison, fast-fashion elders Zara and H&M hit $28 billion and $22 billion, respectively.

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Big picture: The Shein model of making lots of small initial orders and then scaling up — one that has been highly successful and highly controversial — could become the norm as the company looks to sell its proprietary supply chain technology to other retailers.

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