Chinese is recognized as the most difficult language on the planet, but the word "Taobao" seems to be known to everyone. This is such a virtual giant, a trading platform on which many online stores are based. Knowledgeable people can tell you how to order goods for various purposes from Taobao easily and profitably for a poor wallet. Indeed, the main advantages of this resource are affordable prices and ease of ordering. And for those who have never visited this grand fair of Chinese products, it will be useful to read this article. Let's share our experience.
How to register on Taobao?
Let's start with the fact that you can make purchases on this Internet site without registration. True, then there may not be access to pages with the highest quality and cheapest product. So you need to register. This is where things get interesting. You need to get yourself twoaccount - directly on Taobao and on the website of the Alipay payment system, through which all purchases will be paid. But! To register, you need a phone with a Chinese number. This innovation may have facilitated the work of the Chinese comrades, but made life much more difficult for foreign buyers, and specifically for residents of the CIS countries.
There is always a way out
Our man will always find a way out, and not alone. Acquaintances or friends in China, as well as numerous intermediaries, now offer to purchase a Chinese SIM card from them, register an account through them or on their website. They also offer options on how to order goods from Taobao using intermediary services. Perhaps this possibility should be explored in more detail.
Register through intermediaries
On the intermediary site, you need to find the registration page and follow a simple procedure: enter your email address, password, confirm the password again. And that's it, you can go to your personal account with these data. In the left menu at the bottom of the page you need to find the tab "My data. Create an account". In the registration form that appears, you need to fill in all the fields. To open an Alipay account, you need to fill out another form by entering real data.
All data is written in Latin letters. In the column "Identification of the person" you need to enter the series and number of the passport. It remains to check the correctness of the entered data and click the "Save" button. This data can be tracked in your account on the page "My data. My accounts.”
Replenishment of balance and account
Account and invoice status after registration will be "Not paid". In the "My Accounts" tab, you can find an invoice for paying for account opening services - within 300 yuan. You can pay for the service only from your balance on the site. So, it needs to be replenished on the tab “My account. Top up your account. In the form that opens, enter the amount, then you need to click on the "Pay" button. Replenishment methods - bank card, mobile operators, payment systems. But that's not all. From the replenished balance you need to pay for the registration. To do this, go to the "My account" tab. Unpaid bills." Click "Pay". Approximately the same, following the instructions, you will need to replenish your account in the payment system on the site. How to order things from Taobao will be discussed later, but for now it’s worth asking what kind of product attracts users to the Chinese marketplace so much.
What do they sell there?
It's easier to answer what they don't sell there. Everything that is produced in China, from hairpins to computer equipment.
Perhaps the most popular type of goods offered by the Chinese Taobao store is clothing. I must say that the concept of "Chinese consumer goods" in this case is not always justified. In the face of fierce competition, manufacturers from China have nevertheless learned to focus on market demands and sew quality items. In addition, many small workshops and large factories produce products of famous brands - both counterfeit and original. How can thisto be? It is known that many designers and fashion designers open their branches in the Middle Kingdom - because of cheap labor and more democratic taxes.
In the same way, electronics and computers are assembled in China. Of course, along with this, the production of cheap and often low-grade goods - equipment, tablets, phones - has been put on a grand scale. The price will tell you where the original is and where the fake is.
How to order baby products from Taobao?
Children's things and toys are a special conversation.
If clothes for all seasons can be chosen by visually browsing the pages of the site, then, for example, you need to be more careful with toys. There are cases when toxic compounds and dyes were used in their production, which adversely affect the he alth of children.
Users of the site are happy to order wholesale children's clothing - both for babies and teenagers. These are bright and high-quality knitwear, children's underwear, tights, socks, colorful T-shirts and original jeans for girls and boys, strict suits for kindergarten and school. If you are interested in how to order items of this category directly from Taobao, just go to the catalog on the Russian-language website of the trading platform and find the "Children's Clothing" tab.
How to order correctly?
Although there are Russian-language versions of the site, many are confused by the process of choosing goods and placing an order in the site's stores - after all, all information on the pages, including prices, is placed in Chinese. BeforeRecently, by the way, I had to use an online translator. Now everything is much easier. A registered user has no problem with how to order from Taobao on their own. We have already mentioned the features of registration above.
Yet some difficulties remain. There is only a limited amount of information in Russian – how to register, where to apply, and so on. And all the most important - information about the product, about the size, about the prices, about the manufacturer - all this is in Chinese. And discussing the details of the order with the seller, bargaining, asking for discounts, specifying the terms and conditions of delivery is possible only in the chat mode. Without being a polyglot, you can try to express yourself in English (if anything, with the help of transliteration). But the problem is that not all Chinese speak English, let alone Russian. Of course, in "Google" or "Yandex" you can make translations into Chinese. But everyone who has used these functions at least once knows how distorted the translation is at the output. It turns out that there is a reason to think about competent intermediaries.
Purchases through intermediaries
Online shopping always carries some risk. Just look at Taobao reviews to see how often buyers are forced to return goods. The reasons? The most harmless and most frequent - the size did not fit. On the store's website, there seems to be a table of sizes, both Chinese and European, Russian, American. In addition, an e-mail comes with a request to measure your parameters andrecheck the size. And yet - "the suit does not sit." Or the color is not the same as in the picture. Or the quality is not good. This often happens when there is no opportunity to personally feel and examine the product.
This is the very case when it is desirable to resort to the services of intermediaries before ordering a batch of goods from Taobao. Of course, not the first intermediaries that came across, but with a good reputation. Such services are provided, among other things, by logistics companies in China. The intermediary will find the product via the link, contact the supplier, and personally verify its quality and compliance with the declared parameters.
For those who are going to make bulk purchases for resale, the intermediary can prepare a photo and video report and send it to the customer or send samples of goods by express mail, and then make purchases on the spot and send the goods by mail, courier service or transport company.
Is it profitable to buy goods on Taobao?
It doesn't always make sense to spend money on shipping and waste time waiting. If, for example, you need one thing - a phone, a toy for a child, or, say, a steam mop - it is better to buy it at a nearby store, it will cost less. But if you decide to make a serious purchase - a pair of jackets for yourself, clothes, underwear for children for future use, plus something from jewelry for yourself and your sister as a gift - then, of course, the savings will be tangible. By the way, the smaller the weight of the parcel, the more expensive it is. So, before you order something through Taobao, you need to take your time to study more offers and decide on a one-timebuying whatever you like. And, of course, you need to be more careful not to be led by excessive cheapness, but look at reviews, compare the same product from different suppliers.
