SHEIN x Madeby Planet Earth Ltd
Preparing for the Digital Product Passport
Client: SHEIN
Timeline: 2024
Focus
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Regulatory readiness,
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Data infrastructure,
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Circular economy
To support our customers in making better purchasing decisions, we recognise the importance of providing them with clear, accurate, and standardised information about products. In the European Union, new regulations will require textile products to feature a Digital Product Passport (DPP) that contains comprehensive information about a product’s origins, materials, environmental impact, care, repair, and disposal instructions.
In 2024, SHEIN began preparations for the DPP, participating in a pilot project by Madeby Planet Earth Ltd, a UK-based startup building innovative DPP solutions, to understand the challenges of DPPs and assess how SHEIN can collect more granular product data and establish the infrastructure needed to share this data through the DPP. As SHEIN builds our understanding of the data requirements and processes, we will also explore the possibility of launching a DPP pilot to provide our customers with more knowledge around -11.0%-22.7%-5.7%-17.87% SHEIN products.
The Challenge: Navigating Future Regulation with Urgency
As part of the EU’s ESPR, upcoming regulation will require all textile products sold in the EU to include a Digital Product Passport (DPP) — a digital record that provides detailed information on a product’s origins, materials, environmental impact, care, repair, and end-of-life handling.
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For SHEIN, one of the world’s largest fashion platforms, this posed both a regulatory and operational challenge. With a vast and complex supply chain, SHEIN needed to assess:
What data would be required under the DPP regulation?
How could this data be collected, structured, and shared at scale?
Which internal teams would need to be involved, and what systems would need adaptation?
The Solution: A Data-Driven Pathway to Circularity Readiness
Madeby’s digital product passport solution was deployed in a targeted pilot to support SHEIN in mapping DPP data requirements and identifying internal capabilities and gaps. By guiding SHEIN through the DPP framework, Madeby enabled the company to take a proactive approach to compliance and sustainability communication.
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The pilot focused on:
Clarifying EU DPP regulatory expectations
using early drafts and industry insights.
Identifying high-impact areas
for improved data granularity and traceability.
Auditing SHEIN’s current product data systems
across materials, manufacturing, and product lifecycle.
Recommending data infrastructure upgrades
to enable future DPP integration.
Results: Strategic Readiness and Internal Alignment
Through the pilot, SHEIN achieved several key outcomes:
Understanding of DPP regulatory requirements and how they relate to SHEIN’s product and supply chain data.
Internal capability mapping to assess readiness for DPP implementation and identify any gaps.
Mobilisation of internal teams, including ESG, product development, and data engineering, to align on DPP strategy.
Customer-facing value review, exploring how DPPs can be leveraged to enhance transparency and sustainable product choices.
”In 2024, SHEIN began preparations for the DPP, participating in a pilot project by Madeby Planet Earth Ltd, a UK-based startup building innovative DPP solutions, to understand the challenges of DPPs and assess how SHEIN can collect more granular product data…“
—SHEIN ESG Report 2024