Calling all Instagram baddies, girl bosses on a budget, and retail therapy lovers alike — today we’re going to have the most iconic fast-fashion showdown: Fashion Nova vs Shein.
Both companies are super popular in the social media sphere due to having low prices, trendy clothing, and celebrity support, but is one company a better place to shop than the other?
Find out in our Fashion Nova vs Shein comparison guide!
Fashion Nova vs Shein: Overview
To start, here are some general points about each brand:
| Fashion Nova | Shein |
| – Releases over 600 styles every week – Budget-friendly, but not as affordable as Shein – Lots of discount codes and sales – Styles are inspired by the latest trends, primarily the “baddie” aesthetic – Offers clothing for women, men, children, and beauty items too – 30-day return policy (store credit refund and return shipping not included) | – Releases 1k to 6k syles every day – Budget-friendly (but cheaper than Fashion Nova) – Lots of discount codes and sales – Styles are inspired by the latest trends for all types of styles – Offers clothing for women, men, kids, and other unique items (like home decor) – 45-day return policy (free returns on 1st order) |
What is Fashion Nova?
Fashion Nova is a fast-fashion brand known for its sexy and bold clothing.
Contrary to its recent boom, Fashion Nova was founded way back in 2006 and has remained privately owned and operated by CEO Richard Saghian.
Using social media — specifically Instagram — to spread brand awareness and connect with shoppers, Fashion Nova then launched its online store in 2016 and has had nothing but success since.
With five additional physical stores scattered throughout Southern California, Fashion Nova has been name-dropped and worn by big celebrities like Cardi B, City Girls, Kylie Jenner, and more!
In fact, a huge chunk of Fashion Nova’s popularity is due to the Instagram influencers and ambassadors that promote and wear the brand.
Fashion Nova collaborates very often with Instagram models and fashion influencers who showcase different products and outfits to thousands of followers on the daily.
What is Shein?
Founded in 2012 by enigma now-billionaire Chris Xu, Shein is right up there with Fashion Nova at the forefront of the fast-fashion industry.
Shein has a ton of trendy clothing, accessories, shoes, and literally everything else you could think of to make a dream closet.
Also thanks to social media marketing, Shein has collaborated with influencers and ambassadors to further propel the brand into popularity.
Shein doesn’t have any physical stores as of right now, but the company does occasionally set up pop-up shops.
Fashion Nova vs. Shein (A Deeper Dive)
Now that we’ve covered a quick overview, here is a more detailed comparison between the most important categories (including products, pricing, styles, and quality).
Products Comparison
Fashion Nova
Fashion Nova offers a variety of products for not just women but also men and kids. Additionally, Fashion Nova has a Curve section for plus-sized bodies and even a beauty department!
Fashion Nova has a huge selection of items to choose from, with new products dropping seemingly everyday. They release over 600 new items per week (source).
With such an impressive collection, it’s easy to get lost everything, but Fashion Nova takes care to make the website really easy to navigate and find what you want using super specific filters such as size, color, style, occasion, and more!
Shein
Like Fashion Nova, Shein has a huge collection of products that are constantly being replaced by new ones (they don’t call it fast fashion for nothing).
However, Shein has significantly more of literally everything than Fashion Nova. While Fashion Nova releases over 600 styles per week, SheIn releases 2,000 new items per day (source).
Note: While different sources give different numbers, all sources listed that SheIn uploads anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 new items daily. In comparison, Fashion Nova doesn’t even reach 1,000 new items in a given week.
This is a big reason that Shein has helped create an entirely new category in the fashion space: ultra-fast fashion.
Not only does Shein have a men’s department, a kid’s department, and a beauty department, it also carries Shein Plus, Shein Home, and miscellaneous accessories like phone cases, material paper, and tapestries that you can find simply by searching for it in the search box.
Much like Fashion Nova, Shein has a very organized website that allows easy shopping — especially with an advanced search bar that picks up keywords and even recommends items related to that keyword.
For example, if you search up “Dark Academia,” SheIn will pull up clothing and accessories related to that style and aesthetic!
Prices Comparison
Fashion Nova
Thanks to all the discounts and promo codes Fashion Nova offers, anyone can find something within their budget, whether your budget is $10 or $100!
Prices for Fashion Nova products can be as low as $2 and can be as high as $300, making it a great place to shop for sexy, trendy clothing for any occasion.
Just remember, you get what you pay for – the items that are higher-priced are likely better quality.
Shein
Like Fashion Nova, Shein is all about low, budget-friendly prices. Like, you could probably have fifteen items in your cart and it would be less than $50.
Shein is usually even cheaper than Fashion Nova. For example, you can find shirts as low as $2.
Also like Fashion Nova, Shein always has a bunch of discount codes and promos always up for grabs.
Both Fashion Nova and Shein are very affordable brands, it’s no wonder they have massive shopping appeal.
Styles Comparison
Fashion Nova
Fashion Nova is known to be a brand for baddies. I say this because Instagram baddies have played a huge role in propelling Fashion Nova to the level of success its at right now.
You may be wondering, What are Insta baddies? Think Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian — curvy trendsetting women with tons of followers that are sometimes (a lot of the time) paid to wear brands, promote products, and show off lavish lifestyles that may or may not be reality.
To put it simply, Fashion Nova is one of the brands that often collaborate and sponsor these influencers, specifically women with curvy bodies. In fact, all the models on the website have similar hourglass figures.
Fashion Nova specializes in sexy, bold, and daring clothing that promotes showing off your skin and feeling comfortable doing so.
Because of that, Fashion Nova is a better place to shop if you’re looking for something to wear to the club, a party, or if you just want to look like the main character in any setting.
Shein
On the other hand, Shein is a more well-rounded brand when it comes to the styles it offers. They truly have anything and everything, from the absolute latest trends to minimalistic styles.
Like Fashion Nova, Shein also does a lot of collaborations and paid sponsorships with influencers, but the audience Shein is targeting is a much bigger niche due to marketing clothes and outfits that anyone can wear (not just people with the curvy, hourglass figure Fashion Nova promotes).
Shein has a lot more diversity in terms of style, with trendy clothes for every aesthetic: business, dark academia, preppy, cottage core, and more. The search bar will seriously be your best friend.
Quality Comparison
Fashion Nova vs. Shein
When it comes to quality, you do get what you pay for (for both brands). Fast-fashion companies are able to produce products quickly because they’re not spending too much time on the quality of the clothing.
However, since Shein is cheaper and considered ultra-fast fashion whereas Fashion Nova is simply fast fashion, the Shein quality tends to be worse.
Due to this, there’s definitely a hodgepodge of items that are good and poor quality when shopping at both brands, so it’s super important to read individual product reviews.
Whether you’re shopping Fashion Nova or Shein, reading the reviews and seeing what other customers received (and looking at photos) will help point you to which products you will likely have a better experience with.
RELATED: 16 Stores Like Fashion Nova for a Baddie Aesthetic
The Final Verdict
Between Fashion Nova and Shein, is one brand better than the other? It really just depends on what you’re shopping for.
Both brands offer trendy and affordable clothing, but Fashion Nova focuses more on sexy and daring clothing inspired by the baddie aesthetic, whereas Shein offers a larger variety of styles that are considerate of everyone’s fashion aesthetic.
A big difference between the two brands is that Shein is ultra-fast fashion whereas Fashion Nova is simply fast fashion. This means that, although both brands could skimp on quality, Fashion Nova tends to be better quality overall.
Regardless, both companies are super affordable and make it easy to find cute outfits for any and every occasion, so you can’t really go wrong with either.
