To Trust Or Not To Trust: Romwe, Shein and Zaful

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If there is one thing college students can agree on, it is that they all love saving money. With the help of foreign, inexpensive clothing websites such as Romwe, Shein and Zaful, many college students are finding new ways to keep up with fashion trends without breaking the bank.

Stylish clothes for less money sounds great, but with the cheap pricing of these items, can they be trusted? Are they good quality? How long do they take to ship? Many questions arise when dealing with these websites.

Some students, like sophomore business major Sofie Biondi, swear by these sites and frequently order from them, despite their lesser-quality clothing.

“I use Shein, and I love it because everything is really cheap, there’s always discounts and the shipping only takes a little over a week,” Biondi said.

She acknowledged that the sizing on these sites is not always as accurate as clothing bought in person, but said that if something doesn’t fit right she tailors it to fit better.

As Biondi said, a big appeal of these sites is the discounts. The sites frequently have huge sales, and offer free coupons to shave even more off the already low prices. If you download their apps, they offer check-in point opportunities, where you have the opportunity to rack up points. These points can then be applied to your checkout price and essentially act as free money, taking even more off the final cost.

On the Romwe app, customers have the chance to accumulate at least $1.30 per week just by pressing the check-in button. These promotions are basically nonexistent on higher quality clothing websites.

Junior criminal justice major Ashlyn Davis orders from Shein and said she had a good experience overall.

“The products were shipped quickly, and all the clothing items I purchased fit well, aside from a pair of shorts that were super big even though I ordered my usual size,” Davis said.

Not only do these sites offer clothing, but they have accessories as well, which Davis does not recommend buying.

“I also purchased some jewelry, which probably lasted me a week before it all broke,” Davis said. “Overall, I was happy with the clothing, but I would not buy jewelry from there in the future.”

Davis agreed that the biggest appeal of the site is their prices. She heard about the site from friends who found cute clothes for good prices on it and was impressed by the plethora of options. She added that the site’s search filters made for an easy shopping experience.

But not everyone has a positive experience shopping on these sites. Sophomore finance major Caitlin Kenney said she will not be ordering from Zaful again.

“It took them like a month to ship it out, and that’s not including how long it took to get it,” Kenney said. “When I got it, all the clothes were super bad quality and the zipper on the sweatshirt wouldn’t work,”

Kenney tried to return the items and get her money back, but she said Zaful’s customer service was not helpful.

“They were super rude, and there were so many fees, it wasn’t even worth it to return anything,” Kenney said.

Professor Yajin Wang, a marketing professor at the University of Maryland, said the main reason for the rising trend of these sites is that they are cheap, and college students are definitely the most likely to shop on them.

“Clothing is no longer for just keeping warm. There is definitely a lot of social and identity elements related to it,” Wang said. “You want to be seen as trendy, and that involves quite some financial investment.”

Wang added that the reason these sites can be so inexpensive is because they are completely online. All they need to succeed is a warehouse. No physical stores are needed.

Wang said that college students are at an age where they are trying to figure themselves out. Many choose to express themselves through clothing. The prices provided by these sites allow students to go through trends and see what they feel good in without completely breaking the bank.

While students have mixed reviews on Romwe, Shein and Zaful it is likely that these sites are not going anywhere as long as their perks continue to attract broke college students.