Can Foreigners Buy From Taobao? How to Use Taobao Agent?

Taobao is the most popular shopping website in China, where consumers can buy a variety of goods at preferential prices.

In addition, Taobao’s policies are also very friendly to buyers. For example: delivery within 48 hours after payment, return without reason within seven days, freight insurance, fast refund, etc. It can be said that consumers have almost no risk when buying from Taobao.

For foreign buyers, the biggest difficulty in using Taobao is the language barrier. Taobao only has a Chinese interface. So many people choose to hire Taobao agents to purchase from China.

In this article, we will introduce the following in detail:
What does Taobao agent do?
Why use a proxy?
How to choose Taobao agent?
And the process of purchasing through Taobao agents.

Let’s start!

What is Taobao agent?

Taobao agents are the middlemen between Taobao sellers and international buyers.

They will purchase Taobao products on your behalf, pack all the products and deliver them to you.

Some key services usually provided by Taobao agents:

• Negotiate with the seller and purchase products for you
• Product quality inspection
• Returns and refunds
• Storage, packaging and order integration
• Use ePacket, ems, ups, DHL, etc. for international transportation.

Taobao agent makes it easier for foreigners to buy from Taobao through:

• Provide English website and English customer service support.
• Convenient payment method
• Allows you to preview the appearance of the product before it is shipped.

The greatest value of Taobao agent is that it allows you to preview the product before it is shipped from China and help you to perform quality inspection on the product.

If you find that the product does not meet your expectations or the quality of the product is not good, the purchasing agent can help you return it. You only need to pay the shipping fee for the return (from the agent’s warehouse to the seller’s warehouse), and for some products, there will be no return shipping fees.

This minimizes your risk of buying from Taobao.

How can I buy from Taobao?

There are usually three ways for foreigners to buy from Taobao:

Purchase from Taobao agent website

This method is the method most people choose, the operation method is very simple, you only need to choose your own product, and then submit it to the Taobao agent website.

The purchase process is as follows:

① Select product

You browse the product on Taobao and find the product you want, copy the product link, and then paste it into the input box of the agent website, then your product page will be displayed. You just need to add it to the shopping cart.

② Place an order

After adding the selected product to the shopping cart, you can pay directly to place an order on the Taobao agent website.

When choosing a Taobao agent website, pleasecarefully, because some websites are unprofessional and will cause trouble for you.

If you purchase the following products, please consult an agent in advance. Otherwise, it will bring you a certain amount of trouble.

• Restricted items
• Branded goods
• Bulky and heavy objects
• Virtual merchandise
• Electronic product

The transportation of these products will be more complicated.

③ Down payment

 The most important thing after placing an order is the payment. The payment methods supported by each agenct are different. But most websites support credit card, PayPal and Alipay payment. You can choose according to your actual situation.

The payment amount includes the cost of the goods .（Most of Taobao’s products are free shipping in China.）

④ Transport to the agent warehouse

After the payment is completed, the Taobao agent will purchase the goods from the Taobao seller. Usually items will arrive at their warehouse within 2-5 days.

After receiving the goods, you need to communicate with the agent to check the quality of the goods. Of course you can also ask them to take photos or videos of you.

⑤ Secondary payment

The second payment is mainly to pay international freight, and the agent will calculate the corresponding freight according to the product after receiving the goods.

What is the fastest and best mode of transportation?

There are usually three ways of international transportation, express, air and sea. Small items are generally delivered by express.

If you want to receive your shipment as soon as possible and be able to track the package throughout, then you will have to choose a more expensive option, such as UPS or DHL.

Otherwise, you can choose a more affordable EMS.

How long does it take to transport the fastest?

The time varies from about 5 days to a few weeks, depending on the method you choose.

⑥ Receipt of goods

After you confirm that there is no problem with the product and make the payment, the Taobao agent will send the product out.

It should be noted here that you need to communicate with the agent after delivery and ask for the express tracking number to track the product.

Buy directly from Taobao by yourself

Buying directly from Taobao is similar to buying from 1688.com. The only difference is that 1688 is more suitable for wholesale, while Taobao is more suitable for single purchase.

What you need to overcome is the language and transportation issues.

Recommend Reading: How can foreigners buy from 1688.com? (No agent）

Taobao currently supports shipping to the following 10 regions outside of China:

• America
• Canada
• Australia
• new Zealand
• Japan
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• Hongkong
• Macao
• Taiwan

The process of purchasing from Taobao is as follows:

① Create Taobao account

There are two ways to register a Taobao account.

The first is to download the Taobao application on your mobile phone, and then register with your mobile phone number or email address.

The second is to register a Taobao account on the computer.

Information to be prepared when registering:

• Phone number
• Name/nickname
• Area
• Bank card

② Choose products and sellers on Taobao

Like 1688, after registration, you can search for the product you want in the search box. You need to search in Chinese.

After choosing the right product, you need to check the ratings and reviews of the product to avoid buying products of poor quality. Especially for products with few reviews or low ratings, you must be careful.

③ Taobao Place an order

After you choose the product, the next step is to communicate with the seller. You can communicate with merchants at any time. It should be noted that because you are shipping overseas, you need to ask the seller whether they support shipping abroad, the shipping method and the delivery time.

After clarifying all the problems, you can place the order. You need to fill the delivery address when placing the order.

Taobao has four official delivery methods, you can choose according to your country.

FURTHER READING

• Is Alibaba Safe/Legit? How To Buy From Alibaba Safely?
• A Complete Guide To Shipping From China (2021 Update)
• How Can Foreigners Buy From 1688.com? (No Agent）
• 7 Best China Wholesale Websites (Clothing, Bags, Shoes…)

④ Taobao down payment

After confirming the order, you need to pay for the product and transportation to the domestic warehouse through Alipay. Alipay supports credit card (VISA, JCB, MASTERCARD) payment. The service fee is usually 3%.

⑤ Taobao query logistics and manage orders

After the first payment is successful, the merchant will first deliver the goods to Taobao’s warehouse. You can check the logistics status in Taobao order details.

⑥ The second payment

After Taobao receives the goods in the domestic warehouse, you can check the status of the package, the actual weight of the package, and the rent-free period.

Next is the international shipping. If you have multiple packages, you can combine the packages at Taobao’s warehouse. The total freight is calculated automatically.

The things to note here are:

• The free storage time in the warehouse is 20 days, so you can integrate all orders from different sellers within the period.
• If your package stays in the warehouse for more than 20 days, your package will be charged a storage fee of 1 yuan per package per day.
• You can only combine 20 packages/orders at most. If your order exceeds 20, you need to combine your orders into 2 packages, because each package can only have 20 orders.

⑦ Confirm the order and pay

After selecting the combined package, you will be able to see the specific fees that need to be paid. After the payment is completed, Taobao will ship your goods from Taobao warehouse to you.

⑧ Taobao Receiving

Finally, you only need to wait at home to receive the goods, and you can also check the shipping status of the goods on Taobao.

The following is the average delivery time of Taobao international freight forwarder:

• United States: 12 working days
• Canada: 12 working days
• Australia: 12 working days for air freight, 35 working days for sea freight
• New Zealand: 12 working days
• Singapore: 5 working days for air freight, 15 working days for sea freight
• West Malaysia: 5 working days for air freight, 20 working days for sea freight
• East Malaysia: 7 working days for air freight, 30 working days for sea freight
• Japan: 5 -12 working days
• Hong Kong: 3-7 working days

⑨ Taobao After-sales service

After the seller ships the goods, you can apply for a refund within 25 days.

In the first 10 days, you can request a refund by clicking the “Refund” button.

In the following 15 days, you can apply for a refund via “After-sales Application”.

Find a friend or hire someone at Fiverr to help you buy from Taobao

This is very simple. If you have a friend in China, you can ask him to buy it directly and send it to you. The purchasing process is very similar to the first point. If you are looking for someone to buy on Fiverr, you must pay attention to avoid encountering scammers.

At the same time, you can also find SourcingArts, we can help you buy from Taobao, Jingdong, Pinduoduo and other platforms, and then ship it to you. View more SourcingArts services.

How much is a Taobao agent?

Taobao agents usually charge 5% of the total price of the goods as a commission, and some agents charge 3%, 8% and 10%.

What to pay attention to when choosing a Taobao agent

When choosing a Taobao agent, there are many options to choose from.

So, how do you choose the best?

In order to ensure that you are not deceived, you should consider the following 5 things when choosing to use a Taobao agent:

• Website interface-how does the interface work and is it easy to navigate and place orders?
• Services-What shipping options do you have and whether they provide value-added services, such as QC photos, insurance, size measurement, etc.
• Customer Support-The contact information they provide and whether their support is fast and useful.
• Prices—their service fees, shipping costs, and the most overlooked costs—how high the exchange rate is.
• Online reputation-What is their feedback on the Internet, any comments on Trustpilot, Reddit?

Which Taobao agent is the best?

It is difficult to judge which agent is the best. Each agent has its own characteristics and advantages.

Below are 7 Taobao agents websites that are active on the Internet for your reference.

Final thoughts

Hope this article is helpful to you. If you want to find a China sourcing agent, you can contact us, With SourcingArts, You Don’t Have to Be an Sourcing Pro to Price Better And Genuine Manufacturer From China

Give me a shout in the comments below or on Facebook Group if you have any questions!