New Delhi, Oct. 8 -- There's a lot happening at online fast-fashion retailer Shein. The China-founded, Singapore-headquartered company is readying for multi-billion-dollar public listing in Hong Kong. It is in the middle of an aggressive revenue expansion that has market analysts downgrading shares of rivals such as H&M and Inditex, which owns the Zara brand.

But, here in India, more than six months after it relaunched partnering Reliance Retail Ventures, Shein is finding the going slower than from its earlier stint here when it and 58 apps from China were banned by the government in 2020.

Homegrown rivals and fashion industry executives tell Mint that in the five years of Shein's absence, India's fast-fashion and 'Gen Z' focused appare...