In February 2025, Reliance Retail, under the leadership of Isha Ambani– the only daughter of billionaire Mukesh Ambani– brought back Shein to the Indian market, nearly five years after the Indian government had banned the original Shein app.

Earlier this year, Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, and his daughter, Isha Ambani, brought back Chinese fast-fashion brand, Shein, into the Indian market after a five-year ban imposed by the Indian government. However, Shein’s previous popularity has not translated into current success as the popular Chinese fashion brand has failed to gain any significant traction in India since its return.

Shein fails to make impact in India

According to data revealed by AppMagic, a US-based app performance tracker, the downloads of Shein India app plunged from 50,000 daily downloads in February, shortly after its launch, to just 3,311 in early April.

Recently, the Shein app has seen renewed interest after being in the news following US President Donald Trump’s tariff war against China, but experts are unsure whether this could translate into sustainable growth.

Reliance fails to make inroads into Indian e-commerce market

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has for years attempted to capture India’s bustling e-commerce market, and wrest market share away from industry leaders Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart who control a combined 60 percent of the country’s e-commerce sector. Despite acquiring majority holdings in firms ranging from digital services, online pharmaceuticals, to quick commerce and online retail in the last five years, Reliance has failed to pose any major challenge to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart, according to experts.

Reliance hopes to leverage Shein’s AI trendspotting capabilities

As per market analysts, Isha Ambani-led Reliance Retail– India’s largest retailer– pinned hopes on leveraging Shein’s AI-powered trendspotting and automated inventory systems to capture a major chunk of market share in India’s e-commerce market, which is expected to hit $345 billion by 2030.

Experts believe that Reliance could make use of customer data sets– that includes over 476 million Jio subscribers, 300 million JioMart users, and 452 million subscribers for Reliance’s news and entertainment portfolio, consisting of 63 channels, a streaming service, and digital news outlets– to feed Shein’s AI algorithm to create customized inventories for Indian consumers.

Notably, Shein’s original app employs AI-driven models to spot trends and for intelligent warehousing before the brand manufactures any new product. Shein website boasts a catalogue of over 600,000 items at any given time, and manufacturing is tweaked or scaled up, according to feedback.

However, the Shein India app fails to match up to its Chinese original, as is evident from customer reviews on Google Play and and Apple App Store, with users pointing to flaws like higher prices and reduced choices.

Isha Ambani brings back Shein– but a watered-down version of original?

In February 2025, Reliance Retail, under the leadership of Isha Ambani– the only daughter of billionaire Mukesh Ambani– brought back Shein to the Indian market, nearly five years after the Indian government had banned the original Shein app in the country in wake of India-China tensions at the time.

However, the Shein which was brought back by the Ambanis is a watered-down version of its global platform, and instead of selling Chinese-made clothes and accessories directly to consumers, Shein is now reduced to a technology partner while Reliance Retail handles everything from sourcing and manufacturing to distribution, as well as consumer data.

Author Credits: Gazi Abbas Shahid
India.com