Seeking cooperation amid competition! SHEIN opens a store on Amazon, but the price is doubled!

It is learned that recently, Apptopia released the latest " Global Shopping App Download List in the First Half of 2022 ". In the US list, SHEIN surpassed Amazon with 22.4 million downloads to become the most popular shopping app in the United States .

▲ Image from apptopia

Even looking at the global rankings, SHEIN's performance is very outstanding, with 117 million downloads , ranking third after Meesho and Shopee , while Amazon ranks fourth with 81 million downloads.

Unlike platforms such as Meesho and Shopee that are based in emerging markets such as India and Southeast Asia, SHEIN's main battlefield is in the United States, one of the countries with the most mature e-commerce markets. It is not easy to survive in such a red ocean, let alone a "hell-level" task like surpassing Amazon.

In the same market, it is easy for people to associate SHEIN and Amazon as fierce competitors. Surprisingly, on the eve of Amazon Prime Day on July 11 , some people discovered that SHEIN had opened a store on Amazon and had started selling products. Its store can be searched on popular sites such as the US, UK, France and Germany .

Mutual traffic? SHEIN products are doubled in price on Amazon

Since its establishment, SHEIN has been famous for its high cost-effectiveness . The average price of its main products is less than 20 US dollars. Because of this, SHEIN has won the favor of the middle and low classes overseas in a short period of time. However, after entering Amazon, the price of SHEIN's products is obviously higher than that of the independent station.

Take a V-neck dress as an example. It costs $20 on SHEIN’s official website and $34 on Amazon , a price difference of 70% .

▲ The picture comes from SHEIN official website

▲ The picture comes from Amazon US

This is not the biggest price difference. It is reported that the price difference between some individual products on the SHEIN independent website and the Amazon store is nearly twice as much !

During Prime Day, coupons on the Amazon platform can also buffer the price difference. As the Prime Day event ends, the original prices of these products are far from the independent site. For Amazon, which pursues " buyer first " and " lowest market price ", SHEIN's practice runs counter to its philosophy. At the same time , this also means that for the same product, consumers who are familiar with the brand will not buy it on Amazon, but go to the independent site to search for the product .

Why would Amazon allow its competitors to arbitrarily raise prices on the platform? Some professionals pointed out that although on the surface, the entry of independent stations will direct some of Amazon's traffic outside the site, on the other hand, it also enriches Amazon's product coverage .

DTC brands are entering Amazon one after another, and the competition on the platform is becoming more intense

Since the beginning of this year, Amazon has suffered losses in the first quarter due to excess inventory and declining consumption. Perhaps worried that Prime Day would not meet expectations, Amazon began to launch the " Buy with Prime " service, inviting independent brands that do not have stores on Amazon to open stores on Amazon and participate in Prime Day activities .

In fact, SHEIN is not the first independent website to enter Amazon and sell well. As early as March this year, the cookware brand Caraway began to sell on Amazon. During Prime Day, it sold cookware and bakeware sets at a promotional price of $345 (the original price was $445 ), and the price of this product on its independent website was $395 . It can be seen that without the blessing of the Prime Day discount, the price of the product on the Amazon platform is higher than that on the independent website.

▲ The picture comes from Amazon US

According to Marketplace Pulse, dozens of merchants on Shopify have provided Prime discounts to consumers during this year's Prime Day . Through this event, many DTC brand sellers who "missed" Amazon Prime Day can also participate in this annual promotion.

Amazon can provide high-quality services , while DTC brands have reliable quality . Through cooperation, Amazon and DTC brand sellers have established a preliminary connection. SHEIN's joining is just the beginning. In the future, more and more DTC brand sellers will enter the Amazon platform, and sellers on Amazon may face a more involuted competitive environment .