please don’t start shopping yet
because I don’t want to steer your.
You guys wrong. It’s a really.
It’s a really complicated place to shop.
Didn’t expect showing Taobao will get so many people excited.
I got so many followers and comments and engagement.
Thank you so much. I am so overwhelmed with all the comments,
but I’m trying my best to get through them.
Also making a video to answer most of the questions.
I see. So there is a few challenges when, um,
when you want to shop on Taobao.
So I can tell you exactly how I do it.
First of all, the language.
Second of all, how to choose things and not get like,
poor quality and, you know,
faulty stuff. Uh,
three, how to pay, um,
and fourth, how to get it shipped.
For Android users, I think you guys have a easier solution.
Your phone should be able to translate whatever the app is, uh,
to your own language. But iPhone users,
it’s gonna be difficult. So I recommend you go on your PC and use, uh,
the website. Um,
Chrome can translate everything.
When it comes to choosing stuff on Taobao,
you can get some hit or miss
because you can see the same exact product photos from 100,
200 sellers. They all look exactly the same,
but it’s not the same thing.
You I,
I think The best way to navigate this,
first of all is this seller,
a longtime seller, how much, um,
reviews they get.
Um, so you can check that with, uh,
under their name, they should have like a crown.
The more crown they have,
it means the longer they have been doing this business,
so they’re more likely to be a respected seller.
Uh, also check each product’s review section.
Um, if the product has a lot of people buying,
it’s safer
because people will leave a reviews and they will leave pictures.
You can see the actual pictures of the product
compared to what they show on the product page.
And then you can get a idea of what you’re gonna get, basically.
And when it comes to payment, I,
I shop with my U K. Credit card.
So they, they accept visa and master cards,
but uh, not all the sellers.
Except that usually if it’s tmall, uh,
which is the more high end version of Taobao,
but they’re still connected on the same platform,
you can shop Tmall directly from Taobao.
Uh, if it’s Tmall,
usually they accept credit cards.
Uh, every seller accept, uh,
Alipay. I think you can add your credit card in Alipay as well,
but it’s the same. If they accept credit card payments, they,
you can. You,
you’ll be able to shop there.
If they don’t, then obviously you can’t.
You cannot.
The final part is shipping.
I know, uh,
some Taobao sellers They offer direct shipping from China to UK,
Europe, U S.
But these type of sellers,
they charge shipping through the roof.
I will never use those direct shipping ones.
They’re just too expensive.
What I use is usually a shipping agent.
Um, the one I usually use is a Chinese shipping agent supplier.
Um, I think it’s still gonna be difficult for you guys to use.
So I’m gonna do more research
and see if there’s English supplier services out there um,
that can help you do this.
Um, so how it works is, uh,
you have a. So you go for a agent service,
a shipping service. They will have a website or they have an app.
Um, you register and then they give you the address for their warehouse.
You shop everything on Taobao,
put the shipping address of their warehouse,
you ship everything to their warehouse,
and then you can tell them how you want to package everything.
They can either keep everything as it is,
or they can remove all the packaging for you and then repack it
so the volume, like the volume of the box will be smaller.
Uh, this is very important
because they usually charge shipping fees based on weight
and the volume of your parcel.
Price wise, I’m not too familiar with, uh,
shipping price to the US,
but, uh,
I live in the UK. Usually I pay around £10 for 1 kg of parcel.
Faster options, Like UPS and FedEx.
They will be more expensive,
but they will be really quick.
Uh, but because they usually are afraid,
so there’s limitations on what you can ship or cannot ship.
Also, they will, uh, charge you tax.

— Chao Ban on TikTok @ischaoban