This is not the first time Shein has openly shared its supplier incentives.

This time last year, Shein announced an $85m boost to the "equitable empowerment" pillar of its ESG roadmap over the next five years, which includes helping aspiring designers and its supplier community.

It followed a previous commitment of $70m made in April 2023 to support the Supplier Community Empowerment Programme (SCEP) for its third-party manufacturing suppliers, workers and families.

The fund would help its manufacturing supplier community transition from traditional production to models that are more technologically advanced with training, upskilling initiatives and community support for workers within Brazil, China and Türkiye.

In its latest update, Shein announced an expansion of its annual summer camp programme for working parents employed by its suppliers. These camps offer parents safe and reliable childcare during the summer break and provide opportunities for the children to play and learn. To date, over 500 families have participated in this programme since its inception.

In addition, it revealed how it provides financial support for suppliers to create family-friendly working environments by setting up childcare facilities. Childcare centre services are offered at no charge to workers at Shein’s supplier factories, helping to alleviate the day-to-day childcare needs of workers, while providing dedicated spaces for children aged five to 16 years old to study and play after school.

These facilities are staffed by teams of professionals who supervise and care for the children, while also offering reading and homework assistance. Having their children cared for nearby means working parents can spend time with their children during their work breaks and take part in parent-child activities to build strong family bonds. In the first half of 2024, Shein has helped supplier communities establish and operate 12 childcare facilities across seven cities, benefiting over 31,000 people within supplier communities.

When it comes to supplier growth, Shein says that as of the middle of 2024 it has achieved progress across its various SCEP initiatives by achieving the following milestones:

• Hosted over 700 participants as part of the annual Summer Camp Programme since it started in 2021
• Provided financial support to over 540 supplier employee families under the Spotlight Programme. The Shein Spotlight Programme provides financial assistance to supplier employees and is aimed at helping workers who are facing unexpected financial hardships caused by major illnesses
• Assisted nearly 200 partner supplier factories in upgrading more than 500,000 square metres of factory space, benefiting nearly 33,000 employees within the supplier community
• Upgraded nearly 11,000 square metres of cafeterias, dormitories, and multipurpose rooms.

Wang Tao an owner of a factory that produces Shein garments employs over 700 employees. He said that taking care of his workers, listening to their needs and helping to resolve their concerns, allows his workers to go about their work with peace of mind.

“The support and assistance that Shein has provided us as a supplier has greatly helped our operations and management.” In recent years, Shein has continued its focus on supplier empowerment activities as part of its efforts to promote transformation and growth of the garment manufacturing sector. This includes focusing on R&D and technological innovation, providing training support to suppliers and their workers, and investments to support suppliers in their factory expansion and services to the community. In 2023, Shein announced that it would invest $70m over a five-year period as part of its commitment to initiatives supporting supplier empowerment.

Are the moves enough to quiet Shein critics?

Shein has exploded on to the fast fashion scene and grown exponentially in the last five to 10 years.

But with its meteoric rise, so too has criticism around its ethical and environmental practices.

Most recently, and extracted from its own ESG report is that it has seen an increase in absolute missions from 9.17m metric tonnes of CO2e in 2022 to 16.68m metric tonnes of CO2e in 2023.

Then is the more complex claim of it engaging forced labour within its supply chains – a claim it has categorically rejected.

At the start of the month, the human rights group Stop Uyghur Genocide (SUG) submitted evidence to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to block Shein's bid to list on the London Stock Exchange on allegations of forced labour within its supply chain.

But at the same time, Shein has been quite vocal about the steps it is taking toward environmental and social responsibility.

Last month Shein announced an update to its policy regarding child labour in which contracts with suppliers discovered to be engaging in child labour will be immediately terminated instead of given time to remediate.

The question is whether such attempts to prove its cynics wrong are working.

GlobalData apparel analyst Alice Price observes: “Shein’s supplier support programme initiative can be seen as another push from the ultra-fast fashion player to improve its practices, having faced longstanding criticism regarding it ethical and environmental practices in recent years.

"This also comes as Shein strives to improve consumer perceptions ahead of its rumoured IPO in London, where the player would be subject to strict compliance requirements.

"Such initiatives will go some way to demonstrating to consumers that Shein is working to overhaul its practices, and will likely have much better traction than previous PR stunts, namely its influencer brand trip in June 2023, which received widespread backlash.”