Amazon Launches Shein Competitor ‘Haul’ – Everything Will Cost Less Than $20

UPDATE: November 14, 2024 at 1:36 PM EST This story has been updated with a comment from an Amazon representative.

Amazon is launching a Shein competitor, according to one new press release.

With Shein’s skyrocketing sales, it’s easy to see why the Bezos-owned big-box retailer aims to compete head-on in the world of low-cost, trend-driven e-commerce.

Fast-fashion retailer Shein, despite ethical scrutiny regarding its work practices, environmental impact and product safetyis a fierce rival in the e-commerce space.

In 2023 it accumulated $32 billion in worldwide salesindicating a growth of almost 42% year-on-year. That same year, Shein secured over $14 billion in sales in the United States, according to EcommerceDB (ECDB). To put this into perspective, Shein surpassed both Walmart.com and Amazon.comwhich had revenue of between $9 and $12 billion per ECDB.

“Amazon’s online fashion revenue now trails both Shein and Walmart,” the ECDB report said.

Amazon’s new discount retailer is called ‘Haul’

Haul, Amazon’s new economical online retailer, will keep prices capped at $20. However, most of the products will be less than $10. Amazon’s press release cited examples of some of these budget-friendly items:

• A necklace, bracelet and earrings set for $2.99

• Two kitchen tongs for $4.99

• An iPhone 16 case for $1.79

• A belt for $1.99

• A three-piece trimmer scraper set for $2.99

Orders must be $25 or more to qualify for free shipping — but don’t expect them to be delivered in two days. According to Amazon’s press release, Haul’s delivery time is between one and two weeks.

“Finding great products at very low prices is important to customers, and we continue to explore ways to work with our sales partners to offer products at ultra-low prices,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide sales partners. services.

As mentioned at the outset, the mass production of cheap products has been subject to criticism. For example, Shein’s rapid production model contributes to significant carbon emissions, according to The cable.

We reached out to Amazon about how it plans to avoid these concerns. In response, an Amazon representative said the following:

“Low-cost goods are not new to our business, and we continue to focus on identifying opportunities to build on our progress towards our climate pledge to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2040. With Amazon Haul, we will demonstrate its impact – as we do all our operations – and work to mitigate it in a similar way.

We are constantly working to prevent, manage and reduce waste across our business, including waste we produce in our operations and customer waste, such as packaging and retired products. We aim to avoid waste through innovation, design and operational efficiency. Amazon has replaced all plastic air bags from delivery packaging used in our global fulfillment centers with paper fillings. Since 2015, we have reduced the average packaging weight per shipping by 43% and avoided a total of more than 3 million tons of packaging.”

For now, Haul is in beta and available exclusively through a mobile app. You can access it here.