Research on Comparison and Development Trend of Supply Chain

Models: Taking JD.com and SHEIN as an Example

Sirui Fu

, Zhihan Qian

2,* b

and Xin Yan

Chongqing Jiaotong University, Wanjiang, Chongqing, China

Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan Zhejiang, China

Anhui Jianzhu University, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, China

Keywords: SHEIN, Supply Chain Management, JD.com, Cost Management.

Abstract: In the context of an unstable international economic environment, the problem of supply chain of

contemporary cross-border e-commerce has been re-emphasized by all parties. At the same time, in the

context of the national emphasis on green supply chain and sustainable development, how domestic

enterprises can reduce costs and increase efficiency of supply chain to balance the cost of building a green

logistics system has become a difficult problem. This essay analyzes the problems that exist in the supply

chain of SHEIN and JD.com by comparing and contrasting their supply chain structure, operation methods

and concepts. This paper finds that the supply chain of SHEIN, which is dominated by the overseas market,

is greatly affected by changes in the international economic environment, and its cross-border e-commerce

nature has led to the fragmentation of the supplier structure, which ultimately leads to management difficulties.

JD.com, on the other hand, is mainly limited by the high costs associated with its own self-built logistics. The

findings of the study aim to provide theoretical knowledge and practical reference value for all parties to

improve the supply chain structure as well as to solve the existing problems.

1 INTRODUCTION

With the continuous deepening of globalization,

problems brought about by the complexity and

dynamics of cross-border supply chains have become

increasingly prominent. Meanwhile, the costs and

stability of supply chains are also facing systemic

risks caused by fluctuations in economic policies,

geopolitical conflicts and unexpected events. In this

context, global fast-fashion e-commerce and

integrated retail enterprises face unprecedented

challenges in differentiation. How to strike a balance

among efficiency, flexibility and sustainability has

become a focus of attention for both the academic

community and the business sector. Take SHEIN, a

representative fast fashion e-commerce enterprise, as

an example. It has built a decentralized supplier

network based on the "small order and quick

response" model. This model can respond quickly to

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8176-8164

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4912-0700

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6263-139X

Corresponding author

fluctuations in market demand. However, against the

backdrop of a sharp increase in global economic

uncertainty, problems such as prolonged customs

inspection cycles and delayed logistics have led to a

decline in the response efficiency of the supply chain.

Meanwhile, the quality control flaws and ESG

compliance risks arising from the decentralized

supply network have further highlighted the

contradiction between flexibility and sustainability.

In contrast, the self-operated logistics system

adopted by the comprehensive retail giant JD.com

can ensure delivery efficiency and service quality.

However, its heavy asset operation model leads to a

relatively high unit warehousing cost, and the rigid

characteristics of its supply chain show vulnerability

in black swan events such as the epidemic. Studies

show that enterprises that overly rely on centralized

logistics nodes are more vulnerable to external shocks

and need to enhance supply chain resilience through

338

Fu, S., Qian, Z. and Yan, X.

Research on Comparison and Development Trend of Supply Chain Models: Taking JD.com and SHEIN as an Example.

DOI: 10.5220/0014354200004718

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Engineering Management, Information Technology and Intelligence (EMITI 2025), pages 338-342

ISBN: 978-989-758-792-4

digital collaboration and networked layout (Tang and

Veelenturf，2024）

The differences in supply chain paradigms between

the two types of enterprises reflect the core

predicament of the current global retail industry. Fast

fashion enterprises achieve low-cost and agile

responses through the strategy of externalizing

environmental costs (Niinimäki, 2020).

Comprehensive retail platforms, on the other hand,

rely on a high-investment and heavy-asset model to

ensure stability. Both are difficult to balance

efficiency, resilience and sustainability. Therefore,

how to restructure the supply chain paradigm through

technological innovation has become a key issue both

in theory and practice.

This article will start from the current economic

development background and the current

development status of enterprise supply chain

models. Meanwhile, the article conducts a

comparison of the supply chain models of SHEIN and

JD Logistics enterprises and studies their

development trends, analyzing the challenges of cost,

resilience and sustainability they face. And we

propose a technology-driven optimization path to

provide theoretical references and practical

inspirations for related research.

2 SHEIN'S SUPPLY CHAIN

MANAGEMENT

2.1 Vulnerability of Supply Chain

under Fluctuations in Global Trade

Environment

Against the backdrop of globalization facing

headwinds and intensified geopolitical conflicts,

SHEIN's supply chain system, which highly relies on

cross-border trade, is the first to be affected. Tariff

barriers triggered by unilateral trade protectionism

have caused a surge in overseas market access costs.

Coupled with stricter customs supervision policies in

various countries, the cargo clearance time has been

prolonged, leading to a significant increase in the

company's logistics costs and difficulty in

guaranteeing delivery cycles (Li, 2025). More

severely, SHEIN's centralized supply chain layout

overly depends on production bases in China, lacking

the capacity for regionalized production allocation.

When facing structural changes such as Sino-US

trade frictions and the rise of Southeast Asian

manufacturing, it is difficult to quickly disperse risks.

This model of "putting all eggs in one basket" makes

it highly prone to supply chain disruption crises under

the impact of black swan events such as sudden

changes in international trade policies and port

congestion.

2.2 Structural Contradiction Between

Fast Response Model and Quality

Control

The surging global consumer demand for

personalization and timeliness has pushed SHEIN to

accelerate the operation of its "small order and quick

response" model, but it has also triggered serious

imbalances in quality control. (Zhang, 2024). To

achieve the rapid iteration of thousands of new

products daily, the enterprise needs to coordinate with

thousands of decentralized suppliers. This

fragmented supply network makes it difficult to

uniformly implement quality standards. In order to

reduce costs and meet tight deadlines, the production

end often cuts corners or simplifies processes, leading

to inconsistent product quality and a high consumer

complaint rate (Liu, 2024). Meanwhile, as the ESG

concept deepens in the global fashion industry,

SHEIN's shortcomings in the use of eco-friendly

materials and labor rights protection have gradually

been exposed. Regulatory authorities' doubts about

the transparency of its supply chain not only threaten

the brand's reputation but also may trigger

compliance review risks in European and American

markets (Wang, 2024).

2.3 Collaboration Dilemmas of

Ultra-Large-Scale Supplier

Network

The dynamic complexity of cross-border supply

chains is further amplified in SHEIN's huge supplier

system. Facing the rapid fluctuations in global market

demand, the enterprise needs to achieve efficient

collaboration in raw material procurement,

production scheduling, logistics distribution and

other links, but the multi-level and multi-regional

supplier structure leads to serious information

transmission distortion. For example, when orders are

urgently adjusted, there is a delay in information

transmission from the headquarters to tertiary

suppliers, and the responses of each link are not

synchronized, resulting in delivery delays. In

addition, the lack of a unified digital management

platform makes it difficult to share inventory data and

production progress in real time, and it is impossible

to form a global optimization of the supply chain.

This bottleneck in management efficiency is

Research on Comparison and Development Trend of Supply Chain Models: Taking JD.com and SHEIN as an Example

339

particularly prominent when economic policy

fluctuations lead to drastic changes in demand,

directly weakening the enterprise's market

competitiveness.

3 ANALYSIS OF JD.COM'S

SUPPLY CHAIN

MANAGEMENT ISSUES

3.1 Cost Pressure and Insufficient

Flexibility Caused by Heavy Asset

Operation Model

Against the backdrop of slowing global economic

growth and changing consumer market demands, the

drawbacks of JD.com's heavy asset operation model

have become increasingly prominent. Facing the cost

increase pressure brought by economic policy

fluctuations, JD.com's huge fixed asset investment in

logistics infrastructure has formed a heavy cost

burden(Lin and Pan,2025).As of December 31, 2024,

the management area of its 32 million square meters

of warehousing network, although with high

utilization rate, the unit warehousing cost is still

higher than the industry average(He and Qiao, 2024).

This vertical integration model of "full-link self-

operation" can guarantee the quality of distribution

services in normal market conditions, but it makes

JD.com lack the ability to flexibly adjust when

dealing with supply chain fluctuations caused by

geopolitical conflicts, natural disasters and other

emergencies. Once encountering special

circumstances, JD.com, which is highly dependent on

its self-built logistics network and fixed information

system, is prone to problems such as order delays and

out-of-stock of popular products, and the inventory

turnover rate also decreases, making it difficult to

achieve efficient operation in the complex and

changeable market environment (Wang, Ren and

Tang, 2025).

3.2 Synergy Contradiction Between

System Rigidity and Strategic

Vertical Integration

The dynamic complexity of cross-border supply

chains is reflected in JD.com's supply chain system as

a deep contradiction between system rigidity and

vertical integration strategy. JD.com's relatively fixed

inventory management and distribution plan design

struggle to keep up with the rapid changes in global

market demand. When economic policy adjustments

trigger sudden shifts in consumer demand, the

adaptability flaws of its supply chain system are fully

exposed (Qi and Wang, 2025). Although the vertical

integration strategy of "full-link self-operation"

strengthens service controllability, it also causes poor

internal data flow, with procurement and sales data

failing to match precisely, thereby resulting in low

inventory turnover efficiency. Additionally, the

closed nature of the self-built system restricts JD.com

from collaboratively utilizing external high-quality

resources. Under the trend of accelerated global

supply chain restructuring, it is difficult to quickly

integrate external forces to address risks, putting

JD.com in a dilemma between pursuing cost

efficiency and ensuring supply chain flexibility,

which severely restricts the improvement of overall

supply chain effectiveness.

4 SUGGESTION

4.1 Intelligent Development

SHEIN is now able to monitor each order and

inventory in real time through the MES system and

has basically completed the digital management of

the production side. However, there is still a lack of

effective measures for the management of suppliers.

SHEIN can use blockchain technology to build a

Decentralized Supply Chain Management Platform.

It can utilize the transparency and non-tamperability

of blockchain to carry out unified management for the

whole industry. However, it is also necessary to avoid

wasting resources by blindly introducing new

technologies (such as AI, blockchain, meta-universe)

without clear business objectives. If blockchain

tracking is deployed only for the sake of showing off,

but the actual supply chain nodes are not connected,

the technology will become a burden.

JD.com has formed a more complete automated

and intelligent supply chain but still needs to carry out

relevant intelligent development. For example,

following SHEIN's example of using AI to accurately

profile users, it can accurately push related logistics

services, as well as optimize its own supply chain

structure. However, it should be noted that excessive

automation may reduce user satisfaction, lose the

original JD.com customer first service concept,

JD.com if only algorithms to deal with returns,

ignoring the special scene of manual intervention,

may trigger customer loss. Can follow the example of

SHEIN and other enterprises, humanization at key

nodes.

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4.2 C2M Model Application and

Digital Model Optimization

SHEIN can optimize digital models with the help of

big data analysis and AI algorithms to deeply explore

consumer behavior data. By analyzing multi-

dimensional data such as consumers' browsing

history, time spent on the platform, frequency of

purchase, and reasons for return and exchange,

SHEIN accurately builds a picture of consumer

demand. The machine learning model is used to

predict fashion trends and product demand, and the

prediction results are transformed into specific

product design parameters and production

instructions, realizing a seamless connection from

demand insight to production. For example, if the

model analysis shows that consumers in a certain

region are paying more attention to dresses with

specific patterns and the conversion rate of

purchasing after browsing is high, SHEIN can

immediately transfer the relevant design elements and

general style requirements to the supplier, arrange for

small batch production, and then quickly adjust the

subsequent production plan based on the feedback

from the market, so as to realize an accurate response

to consumer demand under the C2M model, enhance

product marketability and reduces inventory risk.

JD.com can integrate the platform's massive

transaction data, user evaluation data and search

keyword data, and use deep learning algorithms to

optimize the demand forecasting model. By analyzing

consumers' search words, product evaluations,

purchase time distribution and other data on the

JD.com platform, we can accurately grasp consumers'

potential demand for products in terms of

functionality, appearance, performance, etc. Based on

these data, we establish a C2M customization demand

library and cooperate with suppliers to develop

customized products that meet market demand. At the

same time, we use digital twin technology to simulate

the production process and supply chain flow of

customized products, identify potential problems in

advance and optimize the supply chain configuration,

so as to ensure that customized products can be

efficiently produced and quickly delivered, and to

meet consumers' personalized needs while improving

the overall efficiency of the supply chain.

5 CONCLUSION

This paper compares the supply chains of SHEIN and

JD.com, and analyzes the main problems of the two

supply chains as follows: SHEIN's problems mainly

come from the rising cost of goods sold due to the

recent instability of the international economic

environment, as well as the high cost of managing

complex suppliers, and the complicated distribution

of suppliers in various places, which makes it more

difficult to unify the standards, ensure the quality, and

control the progress. High standards of supply chain

management have also increased the supply chain

costs. JD.com's problems mainly come from the high

cost of self-constructed supply chain and the

additional cost of focusing on employee welfare.

JD.com's supply chain does not have sufficient

flexibility. Due to the special characteristics of self-

built logistics destined to the supply chain will not be

particularly flexible. Although JD.com in this year

and other domestic companies to actively cooperate

with their own supply chain, the loss of part of the

quality assurance. This paper focuses on the problems

existing in the industry's characteristic supply chain

at this stage and analyses and proposes solutions. The

research aims to improve the efficiency of domestic

and foreign logistics, help enterprises reduce costs

and increase efficiency, further optimize the existing

management structure and avoid the related risk

issues. The future development of supply chain tends

to be transparent, intelligent and digital. The two

companies mentioned in this article have made

achievements in the fields of intelligence and

digitization. The two companies should avoid blindly

introducing new technologies without clear business

objectives in the future digitalization and intelligence

process, resulting in a waste of resources. They

should start with business pain points, such as

optimizing inventory turnover through AI, shortening

SHEIN's supply chain response time.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTION

All the authors contributed equally and their names

were listed in alphabetical order.

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