Discount shopping app Shein has announced plans to open a Seattle-area office as it continues to expand its U.S. footprint and moves forward with its U.S. IPO.
The nearly 10,000-square-foot office space in downtown Bellevue, Wash. will serve as a hub for Shein’s U.S. fulfilment and logistics, furthering the company’s ongoing effort to localize fulfillment and support speedier delivery times for American customers.
Shein said it plans to hire more than 50 professionals to be based at the new location by the end of 2024, joining a growing U.S. team that now includes more than 1,500 corporate and warehouse employees across the country in cities including Los Angeles, San Diego, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Whitestown, Ind.
“The U.S. is an important market for Shein, and we are thrilled to establish a presence in the Seattle area as we continue enhancing our fulfillment process and improving the customer experience,” said Andy Huang, Head of U.S. Fulfillment and Logistics at Shein in a statement. “This expansion underscores our commitment to efficiency across our operations, and we look forward to contributing to the local community and fostering innovation in the heart of the Pacific Northwest.”
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Shein isn’t alone in edging into Amazon’s Silicon Valley turf. TikTok owner ByteDance subleased additional office space in Bellevue, Wash., in late 2023 after first expanding to the area in 2021. The rise of discount apps like Shein and burgeoning social commerce efforts like TikTok’s Shop are a threat to Amazon’s ecommerce dominance, one it is working to mitigate. Late last year Amazon hosted a summit for sellers in Shenzhen, China and dramatically reduced seller fees for low-cost apparel sold on its site in a bid to remain competitive.
None of that is stopping Shein though, which in late 2023 confidentially filed to go public. The IPO could happen as early as this year and has the potential to be one of the biggest in years, according to the Wall Street Journal.
