Regulatory Changes and Strategic Responses of Digital Platforms — A Study on Market and Non-Market Synergy in SHEIN's European Operations

In 2026, SHEIN faces three institutional pressures simultaneously in the European market: a formal investigation under the Digital Services Act (DSA), intensified environmental enforcement by EU member states, and the EU's removal of the small-package tariff exemption. These pressures are not isolated policy shocks but jointly erode the regulatory arbitrage space on which SHEIN's cross-border direct-shipping model has long depended. Based on an "narrative–signal–audience" integrated framework that combines strategic narrative theory with signaling theory, this paper finds that SHEIN's response constitutes a differentiated strategic narrative system. Specifically, a "resilience narrative" directed at investors and supply chain partners, and a "localization narrative" directed at national governments, have relatively high credibility because they are matched by observable, high-cost action signals. In contrast, a "responsibility narrative" directed at regulators and consumers remains largely discursive at present, and its effectiveness still requires further testing. The deeper commonality underlying the three pressures is that the regulatory arbitrage space that SHEIN previously relied upon is being progressively closed off.