Guide to shopping on Taobao!

My new addiction.

Taobao launched its International Parcel Forwarding Service (IPFS) last year, allowing customers to send their parcel to a forwarding agent somewhere in China, which consolidates all your order before sending it over to an overseas address. I've heard alot of good things about Taobao, and how easy it is to use the IPFS, but whenever I log on to Taobao, I get very overwhelmed by all the chinese characters and the sheer amount of goods available.

Anyway, I was on MC 2 weeks ago, and I was so bored at home that I decided to give Taobao a go again. Now, I'm officially obsessed.

Here's a guide to how to shop on Taobao! 

Step 1: Register for a free account at sea.taobao.com! You will need an account to purchase and it also helps you keep track of your purchases.

Step 2: Familiarize yourself with the site! It's pretty daunting at first because there are so many things to look out for. 

Here are a few functions/icons that are pretty useful.

1. Favourites: I use this function to bookmark some of my favourite shops. You can check back on your favourites folder to see if there are any new releases from the shops or if any item is on sale.

2. Your cart: Usually when I see an item that I like, I will add it to my cart first and decide if I want to purchase it later.

3. Check what you've bought: This function is extremely useful at the later stage after you've made your purchases. You will be able to trace your parcels here!

Step 3: Start shopping! Add to cart if you find something that you like.

Here are some tips:

1. Search in Chinese. Sometimes when I'm lazy to type in chinese (or dont know how to translate a certain item), I'll just search in English e.g iphone case, see what turns up, and then I'll copy and paste the chinese characters of the item in the search bar and search again. There are usually more results if you search in Chinese.

2. If you know what you want, be specific. There are just too many items out there, make sure you're specific so that you can sieve out the unnecessary items.

Step 4: Cart out! After you've added everything that you want, go to your cart. Select all the items that you want to purchase and Taobao will generate the total bill (without local shipping).

Step 5: Parcel forwarding service! Once you checked out, you will be prompted to use the parcel forwarding service. Tick the check box and you will be prompted to choose a forwarding agent.

Your choice of forwarding agent will now be reflected.

Step 6: On the same page, scroll all the way down and you will be able to see if the individual shops charge any shipping fees for shipping to your forwarding agent. This does not include the overseas shipping charged by your forwarding agent! If you're ok with the amount, make your purchase!

Step 7:  Pay for your items and the shipping fee (if any) to Taobao.

Step 8: Now you can return to the 'check what you've bought' tab to firstly check the status of your purchases (whether the seller has sent out your parcel) or trace your parcel. (didn't take a screenshot of this step in my previous purchase, so I just took a screenshot of my current order!)

Here's what you'll see when you click on 'trace my parcel'.

Step 9: Once the goods have all been delivered to your forwarding agent, you will be able to see this orange button which notifies you to pay your forwarding agent for overseas shipping. Click on the button to make payment.

Step 10: Opt for combine shipping and the agent will consolidate all your orders, let you know the total weight and the total amount you need to pay for overseas shipping.

Step 10: Once you settle your payment, just wait for the goods to arrive! You may also track your parcel in the meantime.

This is the general framework of how the whole purchase process will look like.

In total, I spent RMB144.20 ($30.92) on 2 photo albums, 2 iphone cases and 1 dress plus RMB48.41($10.28) on overseas shipping. The entire purchase and delivery process took slightly less than 2 weeks.

Taobao is really amazing. I just placed my second order a few days ago, and I bought this chic spag top. Static Fumes was selling it at $24.50 (excluding postage) and I saw something really similar(if not the same) on Taobao, and guess how much it costs on Taobao....

27RMB! That's S$6! Even after adding in the shipping costs, it's probably still less than $10.

Here's the link if anyone's interested!

So yes, I think if you can read chinese characters, Taobao is a shopping heaven. You won't even feel like buying anything from shopping malls or bloghops after shopping on Taobao. Try to exercise some self-control though. It's easy to get sucked in and buy random things that are so cheap, but you don't necessarily need!