Shein Marketplace: The Business Hiding Inside the IPO Numbers
Shein’s real problem isn’t tariffs — it’s Temu. As margins shrink, the battle shifts from warehouses to the booming marketplace business. And Europe is the first battleground.
Shein’s real problem isn’t tariffs — it’s Temu. As margins shrink, the battle shifts from warehouses to the booming marketplace business. And Europe is the first battleground.
MediaMarktSaturn used this week’s Strategy Day to set a marketplace target of €1.9bn GMV by 2029, up from roughly €800m today – but gave no overall e-commerce goal, with total group revenue barely moving from €23.1bn to €24bn. The vagueness comes as the JD.com takeover still awaits Brussels clearance.
French Parliament gave final approval to a law banning advertising- including via influencers – for Shein, Temu and AliExpress, alongside per-item fees rising to €20 by 2030. The European Commission has flagged concerns over whether the ad ban complies with EU digital services rules.
Breaking News The Platform Group under pressure: banks cancel loans, stock loses more than half its valueSeveral banks — including LBBW and Sparkasse Essen — have called in loans from German e-commerce roll-up The Platform Group after journalists from “manager magazin” reported alleged fraud and document forgery. The stock has lost more than 55% in 30 days, and a planned €1bn acquisition of pharmaceutical wholesaler AEP remains unfinanced — deadline end of June. Read more on Manager Magazin More News Douglas cuts its forecast — againDouglas now expects revenue growth of just 0–1% this year, down from a previous floor of 2–4%, with EBITDA margin falling to ~15% and net leverage rising. Customers are holding back and waiting for promotions. The stock hit a record low. Read more on Wirtschaftswoche Shein exits BHV Marais — Paris department store calls it a “strategic error”Seven months after opening its first permanent Paris shop inside BHV Marais, Shein is out. New management took over the department store and ended the partnership. Around 100 brands had already left BHV after Shein moved in. Full Story on France24 Rakuten wants to sell its French marketplace — or shut it downRakuten is looking for a buyer for its French platform, formerly PriceMinister. No buyer found means full exit from France, which is Rakuten’s last remaining major base in Europe. the Japanese marketplace already withdrew from UK, Spain and Austria in 2016, and from Germany in 2020. Read more on Marketscreener Bonprix goes beyond Otto Group — and lists on About YouGerman fashion brand Bonprix is now selling on About You, its first marketplace outside the Otto Group ecosystem. This will be the first step to a more prominent marketplace strategy. More details on FashionUnited Shopify launches tools to track sales and traffic from AI platformsShopify is rolling out extended analytics that show merchants how their products perform across AI shopping platforms. One of the first direct responses from a major commerce platform to AI-mediated product discovery. Read more on Modern Retail Regulation News EU ends de minimis — €3 per item from 1 July, and it hits UK, Swiss and Norwegian sellers tooFrom 1 July 2026, a €3 customs fee applies per tariff line on all e-commerce imports into the EU — not per parcel. The regulation is meant to slow Temu and Shein, but it hits all third-country merchants, including UK, Swiss and Norwegian sellers. Full Story on LinkedIn Don’t want to miss any news? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter!
Online spending in Central Europe is expected to grow by 8% this year, rising from €191.3 billion in 2025 to €206.6 billion in 2026. Germany remains by far the largest ecommerce market in the region, while Poland is expected to grow by around 9% and Greece by around 11%.
Amazon Prime Day 2026 will run from 23 to 26 June across 26 countries, including most major European markets. This means for sellers: inventory, advertising budgets, pricing and fulfilment planning need to be aligned now, not in July.
Amazon is launching Amazon Supply Chain Services, further expanding its role as an infrastructure provider. The offer for sellers includes freight, distribution, fulfilment and parcel delivery – also across channels outside the Amazon platform.
Zalando is consistently pushing its platform strategy and is discontinuing its Connected Retail programme – at the expense of its partners: all Connected Retail retailers must decide by May 15th whether to transition into Zalando’s Partner Programme by June 2027. If not, the partnership will already end this August.
The marketplace of Shein continues to expand its seller network in Europe: in Germany alone, more than 600 sales partners are now active. This marks a shift from a pure private-label model towards a more open marketplace with a growing merchant base. At the same time, in France, the government also failed in its second attempt to temporarily suspend the marketplace following a scandal involving child-like sex dolls.
Just five months after entering Agentic Commerce with its Instant Checkout, OpenAI is already pulling the plug. It appears that while users research products via ChatGPT, they do not use the bot to complete purchases. However, OpenAI may be giving up too quickly: changing established user behaviour requires persistence – and, of course, the necessary investments.
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