You might open SHEIN looking for some new tops and somehow resurface twenty minutes later looking at personalised toiletry bags, home decor and things you definitely don’t need. It stops feeling like browsing a shop quite quickly and starts feeling more like flicking through your own mood board, one that keeps rearranging itself every time you swipe.
SHEIN and Temu have taken features that are usually associated with games, including rewards, timers, challenges and surprise offers, and built them into what still looks like an ordinary shopping app.
Online Shopping Has Become A Game
Open Temu and you’re not far from something that feels more like a game than a normal shopping app. There are rewards, countdown offers, interactive promotions and games such as Fishland and spin-the-wheel features. Temu even has dedicated pages for some of these games.
SHEIN has also incorporated gamified features and rewards into its shopping experience. This isn’t just a theory about why these apps are so engaging either – a 2025 study from Science Direct has found that people showed higher purchase intention when promotions were presented as games rather than traditional discounts.
A normal online shop gives you a product and asks whether you want to buy it; SHEIN and Temu can make the experience feel more like there is always another reward, discount or challenge waiting if you keep looking. Before you know it, you’re not just checking the products anymore. You’re spinning a wheel, chasing a discount or wondering what you’ll get if you keep going.
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Your Shopping Feed Isn’t Random
Underneath the games and promotions, recommendation systems are constantly deciding what products appear in front of you based on how you interact with the app.
Click on something, linger over it or add it to your basket and the feed can respond by showing you similar products or something related; keep scrolling and you’re giving the system more information about what catches your attention.
This is probably why the experience can feel more like your own Pinterest mood board than a normal online store. The feed isn’t a row of products that stays the same every time you visit. Instead, it keeps changing around what you’ve shown an interest in, giving you another reason to see what has appeared since the last time you opened the app.
The Technology Doesn’t Stop At The App
SHEIN’s model is built around small initial production runs, which means a new style can be tested before the company decides to produce more of it. According to SHEIN’S 2024 sustainability report, new styles usually start with around 100 to 200 items. SHEIN then uses customer response to decide which products should be restocked. Its digital supply-chain system is designed to connect those demand signals with suppliers and production.
That means the app isn’t just helping SHEIN sell products. The activity happening inside the app can help inform what gets produced next.
It Not Just About The Products Anymore
SHEIN and Temu haven’t just added games to shopping – they’ve made the whole experience feel less like walking into a shop and more like opening an app when you’re bored.
There’s always something new to see, something discounted or some tiny incentive to keep going. You don’t necessarily open the app because you need something anymore; sometimes you open it because you just want to see what’s there.
