Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein seeks a $100 billion valuation: That’s more than the combined worth of H&M and Zara, despite Shein selling exclusively online.

Shein’s legal maneuvers demonstrate its global ambitions: The fast-fashion retailer is expanding its Singapore presence as it attempts to bypass stricter Chinese rules on offshore IPOs.

It should come as little surprise that Amazon was the top US shopping app in 2021, downloaded 40.0 million times that year. More remarkable is Shein’s leap to the No. 2 spot, up from seventh place in 2020. The Chinese fashion giant had 32.0 million US downloads under its belt in 2021, 68% more than the year prior.

Like many regions around the world, Southeast Asia experienced an ecommerce boom in 2020, as various pandemic-driven social lockdowns encouraged more shopping from home. According to our estimates, ecommerce grew by 35.2% collectively in the region last year, and our newest forecast projects 14.3% growth this year. However, traditional retail is still overwhelmingly dominant.

Fast fashion—design trends quickly and cheaply translated for the masses—has had a strong year so far. But unless you're a young woman who takes style cues from social media, many of the more successful online retailers in this space might be foreign to you. According to a September 2018 Hitwise study that looks at fast fashion, mid-tier and premium categories, visits to fast fashion sites grew 20% or more monthly between March-June 2018.