👉 Background: Shein is the Chinese-founded online fashion retailer known for their massive range of extremely affordable apparel... and questionable environmental impact. In 2022, Shein generated a total of $24 billion USD in revenue, which is almost as much as Zara and H&M.

👉 What happened: Now, Shein has just entered into a partnership with Forever 21, who are a mostly physical retailer. Here's how it's going down:

• Shein's going to acquire one-third of Forever 21's parent company, Sparc Group.
• Sparc Group's going to get a small slice of the Shein pie.

👉 What else: With this partnership, Shein's going to sell Forever 21 apparel on their own site. And, Shein is also placing their own items in Forever 21 stores to create high-impact customer experiences.

What's the key learning?

💡The retail industry is entering a new wave of experiential retail. This is all about transforming traditional retail into an immersive and shareable experience for customers.

💡While online shopping has changed the way we shop, it hasn't made traditional stores obsolete.. yet. But, the purpose of a traditional retail store has changed. Get this: according to McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect personalised interactions.

💡Shein is partnering with Forever 21 to create in-store experiences for their brand and enhance the customer experience. Taking a leaf out of the book of:

• Nike, who installed VR and AR experiences in some of their international stores
• KitKat, who has a flagship store in Sydney where you could customise your own KitKat.

‍