Taobao Buying Tutorial

[kiki-chan78]

I think that now is a good time for us all to kindly ask (read BEG) Dirili to do a GO. ^.~

<3

-Kiki-chan78.

[zirconmermaid]

I hereby formally beg Dirili to run a group order = Please? (gets on hands and knees and looks up with puppydog eyes)

[Dirili]

umm... I don't even know how group orders work hehe. I've never been in on one before. Could someone clue me in? And explain it in small words please because my brain's been a bit slow for me the last few days hehe. Seeing as how the overseas shipping charge can get a bit up there depending on the order weight, a group order could be good for saving on that part.

I've bought on Taobao 5 times now, so I've got a bit of a hang of it.

Since it's like ebay though and there's so many sellers, things could get really complicated if we did a group order I'm thinking. Not sure how we'd work that out unless we just chose 2 or 3 sellers that we all bought from at the same time?

Also, sometimes even though an item is listed, it will turn out to be out of stock and the seller doesn't always know when the item will be back in stock again, so Taobao Focus cancels those items from the order automatically when that happens. Don't know if that makes much of a difference.

[Dirili]

Wow, that's amazing... I've heard of Taobao, but I've always been scared to purchase from a place I couldn't understand. But if the price difference is that much, paying an agent would definitely be worth it!

Oh yes, I forgot to mention in this regard... again comparing to ebay, they have feedback so I stick to sellers that have 90some percent positive. I wouldn't buy from people who didn't have much feedback or had too low of a percentage. I'll post some more about this tomorrow with some screenshots to show you all what to look for in a seller.

It's the actual agents that can be tricky since you can really only go by word of mouth on those. That's why I've been sticking to Taobao Focus, since I've had good experiences with them so far and I had tried Happy Buy when they had a special going, but I didn't like my experience with them.

[letchhausen]

I bet people could stick to 2 or 3 sellers to get those good prices. My recent foray to the fabric store was...not cheap. And the selection doesn't compare either. But navigating that web site is....complicated....at best.

[Dirili]

ack! Sorry I forgot to post the info today. I've been working on this dress for a friend and I got really absorbed in the project.
I swear I'll do it tomorrow!

[Dirili]

Ok, here's an illustrated guide. Going to add it to the first post too. You can click on the pictures to see them larger with more detail.

First, don't forget, it's a lot easier to shop if you download Google Chrome to browse http://www.taobao.com pages.
Here is an example of an item page, and the most important aspects of it:


That icon under the seller's name indicates a seller's status and volume based on this chart:


To find lace edging for sewing, I found i got much better results if I used google translate to put in the Chinese characters for lace instead of the word "lace" itself, so try this:
花边

It was the same thing with brocade. You get best results searching in Chinese:
锦缎

Here's the google translate page that you can use to translate things to and from Chinese:
http://translate.google.com/#en/zh-CN/

I don't know why, but some searches turn out much more accurately if you translate and then search with the Chinese characters. Not all searches though.


Once you find an item that you want, go to http://www.taobaofocus.com and go to your shopping cart and copy the item's page address into the preview field on your shopping card page:


Fill in any applicable information and add the item to your shopping card:


Once you have everything you want to buy listed, fill out your information and click "create" to submit your order:


Submit the first payment which includes everything but the final shipping cost for the full package to be sent from the Taobao Focus facility to you. Then just keep an eye on your order status and wait!



Once all the items from the sellers have arrived at Focus's facility, they take a picture of your order which you can view and then "Ok" before it gets sent to you. If there are any problems, TF will address those with the seller for you before you end up getting shipped any incorrect items. I can't remember at the moment, but I think you have to OK the order before they will ship it...

In my experience they mail you notifications on your order progress pretty well as compared to some other agencies that don't notify you at all.

[kittyasauras]

You are MAGICAL! Thank you so much! :3

Also, how did you find the lace? I typed it in, and several several things came up, but which category is it in?

[Dirili]

To find lace edging for sewing, I found i got much better results if I used google translate to put in the Chinese characters for lace instead of the word "lace" itself, so try this:
花边

It was the same thing with brocade. You get best results searching in Chinese:
锦缎

Here's the google translate page that you can use to translate things to and from Chinese:
http://translate.google.com/#en/zh-CN/

I don't know why, but some searches turn out much more accurately if you translate and then search with the Chinese characters. Not all searches though.

Going to have to add this to the tutorial...

[Dirili]

This was the original post I made. Moving it back here so that the illustrated guide could be on the first page. i got a message that only 10 urls can be in each post, so I had to move this:

I kind of don't know if this is good or bad for me lol.

Ok, this is going to be a long winded somewhat detailed explanation, but it's a lot easier than it sounds hehe. I just wanted to add as much info as I could.

I don't know how many of you know much about Taobao, but it's kind of like the Asian version of ebay. Thing is that they only sell within Asia, but there are English Taobao agents who will act as a go-between for foreign buyers. Most charge a 10% fee for their services, but the cost differences are so insane that even that plus the shipping fees make the purchases so much cheaper!

I think here the cheapest I've seen brocades go are $15 a yard and some of the ones I really wanted were like $30 or so. On Taobao There are soooo many that are like $1.20-$3 a yard. There's also lots of gorgeous lace edging you can get cheap as well, whereas here it always seems to cost an arm and a leg...

I'm still trying to find a good seller or 2 that have a large selection of different types of things, like cloth, elastic, snaps and such, because about $2.50 for shipping per seller at least for shipping from the sellers to the Taobao agent, then the agent gathers up all the ordered items checks all the items and charges to ship them to us. So the less sellers you buy from, the better.

Ok, so if anyone else wants to take a look, here's what I suggest:
1. download Google Chrome and use that as your browser to look at Taobao pages, because you can set it to automatically translate pages. The translations aren't great, but they are good enough to get the gist of things. I haven't had any trouble buying so far. If you are buying cloth though, make sure to check to see if the pricing listed is per meter, or half meter, because the majority of shops seem to like to list price by 1/2 meter.

2. Some items are easier to search for than others... Some you can type English words in and find results, but others you need to go to a translator page and translate from English to Chinese and paste the Chinese characters in the search bar at the top of the page. When I was looking for brocades, I had to do that, but to make things faster, you can just copy and paste this to see my search for brocades:
http://s.taobao.com/search?q=%BD%F5%B6% ... z_20120906

3. To check prices go to a currency converter like this: http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert/?Amount=1 ... CNY&To=USD
Prices on Taobao are listed in Chinese Yuan, so ignore any yen or dollar signs that you see.
right now 1 CNY = 0.157589 USD
This page helps you figure out what the final costs might be in the end, lets you look at the prospective costs of different shipping options:
http://taobaofocus.com/order/taobao-shi ... calculator

4. There are lots of different Taobao agents, but I like Taobao Focus so far. I only used them and HappyBuy before, but HappyBuy has terrible communication and never emails me updates. I had to go to their site to check. Focus sends me email updates when my order progresses. Sign up there or on another site, if you sign up on Focus, all you have to do is go to their order page: http://taobaofocus.com/orders/cart.en.php and copy the Taobao item page address and paste it into the Taobao item slot and hit "preview" Then you can add any details. Unfortunately it doesn't calculate for you when you order more than one, so you have to enter that manually.

5. If you ordered through Taobao Focus, once you have entered all the items you want to buy, click the button to submit the order. Then it will ask you to pay the first payment, the total will indicate the total of your items as you listed them plus the agency's 10% fee. Once they receive all the items, they take a picture so you can look and make sure that all the items are correct. If there is any problem, they will deal with the sellers for you. After that, all that you will have to pay is the shipping fee for them to send it to you wherever you are.

Personally, here are some of the sellers I'm considering right now:
http://shop35808826.taobao.com/search.h ... ryType=cat

http://jfbd.taobao.com/search.htm?scid= ... ryType=cat

http://store.taobao.com/shop/view_shop. ... d=24264870

This store has great, cute elastic for undies ^_^
http://shop67097059.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.3

I'm still searching through stuff, but if anyone else is interested in buying things overseas and wants to talk about it, let me know. I'd be glad to tell you anything I know about.

I'd also appreciate it if anyone else out there has advice for me! Like I said, still hoping to find some good all-in-one shops.