SHEIN, a fast fashion brand, is all the rage in Europe thanks its ultra low price and its viral marketing techniques. Its brutal expansion and strong competitiveness alarmed some people. Someone afraid that the local slow-paced lifestyle and classical commercial system may be completely ruined one day.
Actually, I know this app and its commercial mode Before the foreign exchange broker invited me to download SHEIN and help her “get her bonus by inviting a new customer ”. (What a strange name!) First I was reluctant to download it because I’m totally uninterested in fashion and vogue. But she bothered me over and over again, which drew my curiosity.
She promised to give 20 RMB for each success invitation. So I installed SHEIN on all my smartphones to maximize the reward.
Unlike Chinese local apps, it’s extremely easy to register a new account. There was no permission request to use this app, and you can simply register a new account by a random email.(There is even not a e-mail validation or confirmation link!)
The foreign exchange broker gave me some fabricated email and encouraged me to register as many accounts as I could. However, not every attempt was successful. In some cases I could see the invitation page on my phone, but the invitation is “invalidated” on her SHEIN. When things got worse, I can only see an anti-fraud page on my phone, maybe my IP or device was temporarily banned by SHEIN.
A “clean” IP address is required to increase the success invitation rate. And it is absolutely not recommended to register many accounts on the same device(Unless you modify the serial number of your phone)
After asking repeatedly, she eventually told me that after inviting about 15 new users you will get 100 euro cash. (her secret wealth code!)
This activity was really a test of human nature. After entering the invitation page, a luring lucky draw page popped up on my phone. You were misguided that it was only a tiny step to get the reward. The truth was that it was absolutely impossible to get the bonus without inviting 15 new users.
The viral game gets its popularity from China to Europe. This is undoubtedly a successful business approach. But maybe not a sustainable business model. And the dumping of poor quality products has greatly disrupted the local economy.
Brutal growth will eventually backfire on you.