ULTIMATE GUIDE: BUYING DIRECTLY FROM TAOBAO

*UPDATE: I know the Taobao interface has changed a lot since this post, hence there would be some discrepancies between my post and the new Taobao website. I don't usually reply to comments on this post, so if you really have questions, it would be best to ask me via email at gwensies@live.com. I will try my best to reply from there. Happy shopping!

For those who don't know, I've been shopping on Taobao since 2012 and I've almost never shopped from local blogshops since. The reason is simple: Everything comes from China! I've bought truckloads of things from Taobao before and it even came in a Santa sack once. No kidding.

With such a huge wholesale market in China, it's no wonder your local blogshop sprees (sorry to put you out of business), Bugis Street retailers, even some random clothing shops in Singapore all source their goods from there. You can literally buy the whole world there.

I wrote a guide on how to shop from Taobao using a local spree agent back in 2012 when I used an agent for my purchases. Well, I'm back again with another guide on how to buy DIRECTLY from Taobao! 

With the launch of Taobao SEA (maybe Taobao started to realise they have been gaining a huge market share in Southeast Asia region), buying and shipping directly to Singapore has never been easier. All you need is a VISA or Mastercard credit/debit card.

So now the question you must be asking is, why choose to ship directly from Taobao and get yourself confused with all the Mandarin terms instead of using a local agent like before? There is only one answer: It is much cheaper, because you will be saving on exchange rates, shipping and agent fees. The disadvantage I can think of is that the sense of security you get from the paid agents to check your goods and its quality and to chase sellers is gone, because you do everything by yourself. So if you need to feel the assurance, please go ahead and continue to use agent services. The overall price may not differ too much, depending on how much and how heavy your items are.

Overall, the process is still similar in a way that you still need a forwarding agent, except this one is much cheaper and provided by Taobao. You still have to make payment twice - once to pay for your items and shipping to the  forwarding agent's warehouse and once for your shipping to Singapore.

CREATING AN ACCOUNT ON TAOBAO
Firstly, before you get overly excited, you need to create an account on Taobao. Go to http://sea.taobao.com and register for your free account:

They've made our lives easier because you can now register in English too.

After this registration is complete, you can start shopping right away! Need help in searching for your items in Mandarin? Take a look at my Taobao Search Guide here, which I updated recently.

HOW TO ADD TO CART

Go to the item you wish to purchase and select your preferred size, colour and quantity. Select 加入购物车 (Add to cart) and it will successfully be added to your cart. If you're done with shopping, click on 去购物车结算 (Go to cart and pay).

Remember to check sellers' ratings and reviews on the items before you commit to your purchase. Find out how to in my previous guide.

TALKING TO TAOBAO SELLERS
An advantage that buying directly from Taobao is that they have this messaging system called 阿里旺旺, which allows you to chat with the sellers. Whenever you need help in clarifications for your items e.g. which size fits best, what colour is that etc., simply click on the blue icon (gray means offline), and ask them directly! Their customer service is so apt in replying it's like as though they are on this site 24/7.

I don't think they'll be able to understand English well, so perhaps it might be tough for you to interact with them. Be nice though, otherwise if you piss them off they might just send you the wrong item... and there's no way you can ship it back.

HOW TO CHECKOUT
So once you're done with deciding how big of a hole you want to blow in your wallet, proceed to the check out page.

Select all the items you wish to purchase and click on 结算 (pay).

For first-time users, you will be prompted to key in your local address (in Singapore). Key in your delivery address accordingly:

After keying in your local delivery address, select 国际转运服务 (International Forwarding Service):

Remember to always select this before you submit your payment because the shipping fees is going to be crazy if the sellers think they have to ship directly to Singapore!

After clicking on that, you will be led to a pop-up where you can choose which forwarding agent you want to use.

Here's the part where it gets cheaper! When you use an agent, their shipping fees tend to be pricier (not exorbitant but it is much higher). Depending on weight, you can save up about half or more on shipping fees. As for which forwarding service to use, it doesn't really matter to me because their shipping rates are similar. However, I've only been using 4PX and haven't tried the other agents before. One thing to note is that all the international forwarding services only allow consolidation of up to 20 orders (i.e. one batch of of items from the same seller is considered as 1 order) for each parcel they ship to Singapore and the maximum holding time in the warehouse for your items is 20 days.

You can find out more about their shipping charges and service ratings here. As for the shipping duration, it usually takes about 3 - 6 days for it to reach Singapore from China.

Click on 提交订单 to submit your order.

HOW TO MAKE PAYMENT (FOR ITEMS & SHIPPING TO CHINA WAREHOUSE)
Once you submit your order, you will be directed to 支付宝, which is somewhat like the China version of Paypal.

Key in your credit card details as directed and click on 确认付款 to confirm your payment. It usually takes about 24 hours for them to verify your credit card details if you're an international buyer.

TRACKING YOUR ORDER
To track your order, click on the drop-down menu from 我的淘宝 and select 已买到的宝贝 (items purchased):

You will be directed to this page where you can check the status of your order, whether the payment is being processed, or if the sellers have already shipped out the items etc.

I suggest downloading the Taobao app to your phone if you're going to find yourself keeping track of the statuses. Plus, they seem to encourage the use of the app, with free credits 淘金 that you can use as discount when you checkout, but 1 淘金 is equivalent to RMB$0.01 (I think) so you may take a while to collect up to a usable amount. Just redeem it everyday!

So once your item arrives in the warehouse, they will inform you via the Taobao app and also send you an SMS reminder.

Some sellers may take a while to send out the orders, so you may need to remind them. Simply go to your orders page and click on 提醒卖家发货 to remind the sellers to mail out your item.

HOW TO CONSOLIDATE YOUR ORDERS
So after your items arrive in the warehouse, you need to go to 国际运转 (International Parcel Forwarding) to consolidate your orders:

You have to manually select 合并快递 to consolidate your items into one single parcel.

Once all your items have arrived and you've consolidated them into one parcel, click 合并订单 to ship out your parcel to Singapore. You will be directed to a payment page where you will be prompted to make payment the second time for the shipping fees to Singapore.

Once all payment has been settled, just wait for a couple of days for your parcel to reach Singapore and be delivered to your doorstep!

Overall, buying directly from Taobao may be a bit more troublesome than engaging in an agent's service, but you will manage to save quite a bit from shipping. The whole process from ordering to the items reaching you usually takes around 8 - 12 days, depending on how fast the sellers send the items to the warehouse.

When your items have arrived in Singapore, you may wish to rate the seller and leave a review for the item. One thing I've noticed... they can't seem to take criticism well. Once, I left an "average rating" for two items from a particular seller, that seller 阿里旺旺-ed me for a few days, apologising and asking me to change my rating to a "good rating" as my (insignificant) review may cause them a drop in rating and even promised to give me back some money if I deleted my review. Bribery at its best, don't you think?

Lastly, I would like to dedicate this paragraph to my parents for making sure I didn't fail my Chinese during primary and secondary school because without them, I would have never been able to write this guide for you guys. So, thank my Papa and Mama please!