Did you ever dream about a guy that comes to your doorstep dressed up in a uniform carrying a box packed with all those things you miss from back home? Well this guy actually exists and he delivers for free and you can pay him in cash so keep reading.
Either if you’ve been living in China for a long time or you just landed, shopping is a common issued among the foreign students, home cravings are too expensive, malls are totally “maibuqi”, going to Carrefour is and endless journey packed with frustration and anger, without mentioning the mixed feelings you get once you hit the “imported products” section and you start wondering about prices and fantasize about all those delicious things you used to eat back home.
This guide is intended to make your life easier and more enjoyable while living in China. There are many online shopping websites in China. Taobao is the biggest website in China. You can buy almost everything on it. Taobao has 2 versions: taobao.com is for little sellers who are retailers, while tmall.com is for the famous brands or manufacturers.
taobao.com | tmall.com |
Step by Step, Shopping Online
First thing you need to know is: At present, all of the online shopping websites are in Chinese language. But if you know the basic online shopping Chinese and have a Chinese address, you can also easily buy things online at a cheap price.
You can find 免费注册 on the left top of the website. 免费注册 means register. Click it you can choose the English version to finish the registration.
When you submit you will have to enter your cell phone number. They will send you the verification number to your phone and you enter it to finish the verification. After registration, you have to fill your basic information, such as name, address(地址), cell phone number(电话).
>> Useful Chinese expressions:
用户名 Username
密码 Password
确认密码 Confirm Password
验证码 Verification Code
电子邮箱 Email Address
You can enter the brand or the thing to search. But you have to translate it to Chinese word first. Search:搜索.
加入购物车: Add to cart
立刻购买: Buy it now
结算: Buy all in the cart
After you choose the address which you can get the package and submit the order. You have to pay online. There are many ways to pay, such as use credit card, internet bank and alipay (more like Paypal).
In this step, the money is first paid to Taobao, when you get the package and confirm the order. Then the money will send to the sellers. This will protect buyers from getting nothing and losing money.
Buyer pay to-> Taobao send order to->seller send the package to-> Buyer confirm the order-> Taobao send money to-> Seller
There is a rule in Taobao, the seller must send the package within 72 hours, most of them will send the package in 24 hours. You will get the package in 1-7 days. It depend on distance between you and the seller.
If there is anything wrong with the goods, contact the seller at the first time. You have the right to return the goods in 7 days if you haven’t used it
Tips on big discount
In general, you will find discount on each holiday: both on Chinese traditional festivals and western holidays. The particular goods will have discount, such like Valentine’s day to buy the chocolate, women’s day to buy the cosmetics.
Besides, Taobao has its own big discount. On November 11st, we called it “double 11”, most of the shops on tmall.com have 50% off discount. On December 12nd, we called it “double 12”, most of the shops on taobao.com have big discount.
Another big discount is from the December to the Chinese spring festival. It is about 2 months, including Christmas day, New year’s day and the Chinese spring festival.
Other Online Shopping Websites