I wrote about Buying from Taobao some time back, and would like to add a few points since my PRC colleagues have been giving me lots of tips and pointers. I bought quite a few items from Taobao, not fully aware of discerning the quality of sellers. I was lucky that most of the stuff I got was pretty decent, but I've read of many who are disappointed with their purchases too.
According to them, the Chinese themselves buy extensively from Taobao - from fashion, to food, to air tickets and hotels. They take ratings and comments very seriously. Most of them only buy from top rated sellers and look at the comments.
How to know if sellers are good without having to read through many chinese comments? How to choose good sellers?
The short cut is to look at the seller's rating, which is accumulated over time and many reviews. The highest rating is "crowns" where you see lots of glittering crowns right below the seller's name. The maximum number of crowns should be 5 and any seller with crowns should be generally safe to buy from. The level before crowns are diamonds. The maximum number of diamonds is also 5 and will upgrade to one crown after 5 diamonds. The starting level should be stars.
These was what the Chinese themselves shared, and it was new to me, so I thought that I should share it with everyone else. They've been showing me how to buy authentic ZARA and branded apparels which are sold by factories directly though Taobao among many other things. *gasp* I've yet to try though I'm tempted to.
There's now Taobao Southeast Asia and it seems possible for us to buy directly from Taobao through an account with Alipay. I still haven't figured out how it works and still enjoy the convenience of buying through daigou65 who will settle my order and ship them over. I'm not quite sure how the shipping fees is if we buy direct from sellers and get them to arrange shipment - you may save the 5-7% commission but have to liase with sellers directly (in chinese!) and the shipment fee might be more expensive (as daigou has preferential rates and ship in bulk).
Will update again if I find out something new. =)
According to them, the Chinese themselves buy extensively from Taobao - from fashion, to food, to air tickets and hotels. They take ratings and comments very seriously. Most of them only buy from top rated sellers and look at the comments.
How to know if sellers are good without having to read through many chinese comments? How to choose good sellers?
The short cut is to look at the seller's rating, which is accumulated over time and many reviews. The highest rating is "crowns" where you see lots of glittering crowns right below the seller's name. The maximum number of crowns should be 5 and any seller with crowns should be generally safe to buy from. The level before crowns are diamonds. The maximum number of diamonds is also 5 and will upgrade to one crown after 5 diamonds. The starting level should be stars.
These was what the Chinese themselves shared, and it was new to me, so I thought that I should share it with everyone else. They've been showing me how to buy authentic ZARA and branded apparels which are sold by factories directly though Taobao among many other things. *gasp* I've yet to try though I'm tempted to.
There's now Taobao Southeast Asia and it seems possible for us to buy directly from Taobao through an account with Alipay. I still haven't figured out how it works and still enjoy the convenience of buying through daigou65 who will settle my order and ship them over. I'm not quite sure how the shipping fees is if we buy direct from sellers and get them to arrange shipment - you may save the 5-7% commission but have to liase with sellers directly (in chinese!) and the shipment fee might be more expensive (as daigou has preferential rates and ship in bulk).
Will update again if I find out something new. =)
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