Shein has moved beyond selling its own brand apparel and into a marketplace platform that will enable other merchants to sell directly to customers.

Shein is one of the world’s largest online fashion retailers. The marketplace platform makes available a range of additional merchandise and shipping options, and the company expects it to result in increased customer engagement and satisfaction though creating a marketplace would put Shein in more direct competition with e-commerce giants at a time when retailers globally are seeing growth slow amid economic uncertainty and weakened consumer spending in some markets.

Shein currently sells and ships products to more than 150 countries and carries pricier clothes such as evening gowns as well as household goods.The fast-growing company, now based in Singapore, is also diversifying its supply chain away from China, where Shein was founded. It has started manufacturing in Turkey and has leased and operated warehouses in Poland to store merchandise and ship to customers in western Europe. The company’s supply chain is largely rooted in a major manufacturing hub in China, where it has a network of more than 3,000 suppliers.

Shein has grown rapidly into one of the world’s top online retailers based on a business model offering a large assortment of apparel at ultralow prices tracking quickly shifting fashion trends.