What: The Chinese e-retailer has noticed that sales growth slowing from the beginning of the pandemic, just as it faces mounting pressure to live up to a $100 billion valuation.

Why it is important: While revenue last year was overall in line with company expectations, what is concerning for the top executives is that expansion was strong in the first half of the year but decelerated at a worse-than-expected pace in the second half, with the slowdown continuing into 2022.

Shein saw annual sales growth slow to around 60 percent in 2021 which is a drastic change from the significant 250 percent growth in 2020, when the arrival of Covid-19 turbocharged e-commerce demand from consumers stuck at home.

The deceleration also comes as the company gets caught between the polar opposite pandemic approaches of the US and China. While life in America normalises to pre-Covid norms and shoppers venture out more, China’s rolling Covid lockdowns as the country continues to try and stamp out all infection.

Shein's difficulty in maintaining high growth reflects a wider problem for China's cross-border e-commerce sector, which in 2020 outpaced traditional exporters to grow by 40% thanks to tax breaks and Western consumer demand. Last year, growth slowed to 24.5%.

Shein’s growth slows