They capture 18% of the online fashion purchases in Spain, with sales worth 1.334 billion euros in 2025 (it was 1.219 in 2024 and 1.085 a year earlier), according to the report The impact of Chinese platforms on Spanish fashion trade, prepared by Afi for the Retail Textile Association of Spain (ARTE). They are Shein and AliExpress, which have taken a good chunk of the pie, increasing concern, uncertainty, and urgency to regulate.
The main debate revolves around the operation of these Chinese platforms, in contrast to the traditional shops. The latter combine online sales with physical stores, warehouses, logistics centers, and staff dedicated to preparing orders, assisting customers, and managing returns. This structure also generates demand for services from other sectors, from maintenance and security to space rental, transportation, or advertising.
Shein and AliExpress, on the other hand, develop their activity through a primarily digital and cross-border model, with a more limited local presence. This difference reduces the direct activity and auxiliary services generated in Spain for each sale.
However, these platforms also rely on transportation and logistics companies in the Spanish market, both to move goods from entry points and to complete delivery to the consumer. The difference posed by the report is not, therefore, the absence of local activity, but its scope and distribution along the value chain.
650 million euros of potential added value
If the traditional shops with activity in Spain, the aforementioned report states, absorbed the fashion sales currently channeled by the two platforms, the Spanish economy could generate an additional 650 million euros of added value.
The estimate is divided into 330 million euros of direct impact, 120 million indirect, and 200 million induced. The first component corresponds to the activity of the shops themselves; the second, to that of their suppliers; and the third, to the consumption associated with the incomes and salaries generated by those activities.
Afi summarizes the spillover effect with a conclusion: "For every euro that stops being generated through traditional retailers, another 0.97 euros are lost due to the impact along their value chain."
The same scenario contemplates about 12,000 full-time equivalent jobs: around 7,100 direct, 1,740 indirect, and 3,160 induced. These are positions that, according to the text, could be generated if sales were channeled through traditional operators with greater activity located in Spain.
What is Europe doing?
The European Union has deployed various measures to strengthen compliance with the rules by digital markets, control imports, and protect consumers. The actions include investigations, binding commitments, economic sanctions, and changes in customs rules.
In the case of Shein, the European Commission opened in February 2026 a formal procedure under the Digital Services Act. The case examines the mechanisms to prevent the sale of illegal products, the potentially addictive design of the platform, and the transparency of its recommendation systems.
AliExpress first faced a procedure that led the Commission to make binding, in June 2025, several commitments related to the detection of potentially illegal products, the traceability of sellers, advertising, and complaint systems. In July 2026, the Commission also imposed on the platform a fine of 550 million euros for failing to meet its obligations for assessing and mitigating risks related to the dissemination of illegal, unsafe, or counterfeit products.
The European action has also reached Temu. In May 2026, the Commission imposed a fine of 200 million euros on it for considering that it had not adequately assessed the systemic risks associated with the presence of illegal products in its market. The decision was supported, among other elements, by purchase evidence that detected safety issues in certain chargers and children's toys.
These actions are joined by the change in customs rules. From July 1, 2026, packages worth less than 150 euros coming from outside the EU are subject to a temporary customs duty of three euros for each tariff category of product included in the shipment. Therefore, a package can generate more than one charge if it contains products from different categories. The measure will be in effect until the permanent customs system planned by the Union is applied.
The objective of this set of actions is that the volume of sales and shipments of e-commerce does not hinder controlling the safety of the products nor applying the obligations that correspond to the operators selling in the community market.