Exclusive: Shein web traffic jumps despite poor working conditions documentary

The fast-fashion etailer, which is alleged by Channel 4’s Untold documentary to have broken Beijing labour laws at two of its supplier factories, has seen little negative impact on its site traffic following the news, an investigation by Retail Week confirmed.

On the week commencing October 15, when details of working conditions hit the press and the accompanying documentary aired, Shein.co.uk’s site traffic saw a minor dip before reaching a four-month-high the following week. 

Shein.co.uk’s traffic peaked at more than 616,000 visitors on October 23, the busiest day since its summer Sale in July.

Traffic during the week commencing October 22 reached 3.8 million visits, making it the busiest week of the month, up 13% on the week before. Average traffic for the month of October was up 13% year on year. 

According to data from Similarweb, Shein under-indexes in users aged 35 and over and has a 70/30 gender split, with a higher number of female visitors using the site. 

The Untold investigation found garment factory workers at two Shein suppliers in Guangzhou were illegally working 18-hour days without weekends, being paid less than 3p per garment and given only one day off a month.

A Shein spokesperson said: “We are extremely concerned by the claims presented by Channel 4, which would violate the code of conduct agreed to by every Shein supplier.

“Any non-compliance with this code is dealt with swiftly and we will terminate partnerships that do not meet our standards.

“We have requested specific information from Channel 4 so that we can investigate.”