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The complete guide to buying stuff from Taobao in S’pore

2016-03-24 , 11:44 am

Last Updated on 2016-05-19 , 1:54 pm

Everything comes from China nowadays, so it’s only natural that people are beginning to buy things directly from China. The best way to do this? Through Taobao! We’re not avid shoppers, but the growing reputation of Taobao among fellow Singaporean shoppers do make us want to check it out. And man we are so amazed.

However, one thing stands between us and ecstasy: the website is in Chinese.

This is truly the one and only thing that made us regret the nonchalant attitude we gave our Chinese teachers back in our secondary school days. However, regret will not solve anything. Goody Feed, on the other hand, solves everything.

The complete guide to buying stuff from Taobao in S’pore

Create an account
To shop on Taobao, first you need an account. Go to the top of the page and click on 注册. If you cannot read Chinese, keep a google translate tab open. It’ll come in handy. Or you can click on 语言 on the top left hand corner and translate the page to English, but beware of translation errors when you do this.

Search for your stuff
Simply type in the keywords of the thing you are looking for. Try several combinations. Use google to translate it to Chinese for even better search results.

Assess the seller
After finding the perfect thing you want to buy, you need to assess the seller. 月销量 means the number of sales for that product in a month.

On the right hand side, you will find this box which displays the information of the seller. 信誉 is the reputation of the seller. The meaning of the weird symbols is as follows:

The bigger the number, the better. Also, don’t forget to read the comments and reviews!

Contact the seller
Click on 联系 in the box shown above to contact the seller. They tend to reply amazingly quickly. This is where your skills with the translator will be truly tested. Copy and paste your product URL in the chat box with the seller to enquire about the product. A few sentences to help you here:

有免费退货吗？ – Enquiring about free return and exchange (if faulty)
它的实际重量是什么？ – What is the actual weight of the product?
它的包装尺寸是什么？- Dimensions of parcel after packaging.

Billing

Key in your address, name and mobile phone number for delivery, billing and contact purposes.

Delivery
Choose your preferred method of delivery.

There are three options for you to choose from:

a. Taobao Global Direct Shipping
This option is recommended for a single product purchase. Only one payment (product cost + shipping fee) is required. Taobao will select a trusted parcel forwarding company on your behalf and will overlook the entire shipping process. It is the cheapest option. However, sometimes option a. may not be available as your seller may not offer direct shipping.

b. Global Consolidate and Shipping
Choose your preferred parcel forwarder and two payments are required separately.
First payment: Product cost + Domestic shipping fee (to warehouse)
Second payment: International shipping fee (to destination). When the parcel has reached the warehouse in China, they will calculate the final shipping price and you will have to make the second payment.

Select this option if you are purchasing more than 1 item from Taobao. This option will usually take a longer time than Taobao Global Directing Shipping due to the handling procedures e.g. consolidation of all your items and repackaging them before shipping – which will help you save on your total shipping fees.

Here, the rates and 2-payment process are similar to using Singapore parcel forwarding agents such as 65daigou, SG shop and others. However, the difference is that Option b. only offer air freight options, and not sea freight options, which is more expensive than Singapore parcel forwarding agents.

c. Contact seller for price
This option allows you to negotiate with the seller. However, this option is usually unavailable as majority of the sellers only allow domestic shipping.

Payment
If possible, make your payment before 4pm (GMT +8) so sellers can send the goods to the courier on the same day. (Couriers in China usually collect parcels at 5pm)

The complete guide to buying stuff from Taobao in S’pore

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