Repositioning in the Digital Age: Assessing Consumer Perceptions of SHEIN India’s Brand Equity Following Its 2025 Make in India Relaunch

This study set out to assess consumer perceptions of SHEIN India’s brand equity following its 2025 Make in India relaunch in partnership with Reliance Retail. Using the consumer based brand equity (CBBE) framework developed by Yoo and Donthu (2001), extended with Repositioning Perception, Brand Trust, and Brand Preference dimensions, and interpreted through signalling theory (Spence, 1973), the study measured seven brand equity dimensions among 38 urban Indian consumers. The findings demonstrate that SHEIN India’s structural repositioning has generated marginally positive brand equity perceptions across all seven dimensions, with an overall Brand Equity Index of M = 3.14. Brand Trust emerged as the strongest predictor of Purchase Intent (R² = 0.740), underscoring its centrality in the post repositioning context. However, Brand Association remains the most resistant dimension (M = 2.87), indicating that deeply encoded negative associations related to data privacy persist despite the structural changes. The chi square analysis further revealed that repositioning communications are predominantly reaching prior users rather than new consumer segments, highlighting a significant gap in the current communication strategy. The study contributes to the brand equity literature by extending the CBBE framework to the underexplored context of geopolitically motivated brand reentry in emerging markets and by providing empirical evidence for the application of signalling theory to brand repositioning. For practitioners, the results emphasise the importance of prioritising verifiable trust signals, directly addressing legacy negative associations, and expanding communication reach beyond the existing consumer base. As SHEIN India’s repositioning matures, longitudinal research with larger and more representative samples will be essential to track the evolution of consumer brand equity perceptions over time.

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