Online Shopping in China: Beginner’s Guide

Most expats are comfortable with online shopping back home because they know how to spot the deals while avoiding the fakes and scammers. But in China it is not as easy with language and cultural barriers. As a result many don’t even try to dive into the world of online shopping in China, but really you are missing a lot. It’s time to get your feet wet, and we can help.

Taobao: The Holy Grail of Online Shopping

Taobao (www.taobao.com) is probably the most well known of all the Chinese online shopping options and a fantastic starting point for would be online shoppers. It is well worth a browse just to see the massives cope of online shopping available in China. Taobao is the daddy of online shopping platforms in China and the equivalent to www.ebay.com throughout the rest of the world. Taobao’s platform differs from Ebay in two distinct ways: Firstly, it focuses on being a collection of stores with customizable spaces. In turn, this creates the second difference, that being the shopping system in Taobao relies less upon auctions, it allows for more instantaneous communication and bargaining with vendors via ‘WangWang’, Taobao’s instant messaging platform.

Getting Started on Taobao

The most convenient way to make payments for online shopping in China is with an Ali pay account www.alipay.com. Although, it should be mentioned that certain online shopping service providers, such as a great many Taobao stores, give shoppers a ‘cash on delivery’ option when making a purchase. This is also a good way to safeguard against receiving goods being delivered that do not match their description.

It is also worth noting that you can purchase Bian Li Tongtop up cards from vendors that sell telephone cards, should you not want to go to the trouble of opening a bank account. This method is also a good option when a cash on delivery option is not available.  

Getting the Goods – Shopping Online in China

 I arrived on the online shopping scene rather late in the game, and I honestly had no idea what I was getting into. It was only once I’d heard my Chinese co-workers talking about their purchases around the watercooler, checking out clothing online, and receiving deliveries from the post man at their desk at work, that I decided I might like to try for myself. Online shopping has taken China by storm, and the most popular site is Taobao, which is like a Chinese version of eBay, although Amazon (in conjunction with the Chinese company Joyo) has a share of the market too. Taobao is to China what ebay was to America about 5 years ago, taking the country by storm, turning everyone and their dog into home-grown entrepreneurs, and providing a vast array of goods to people who would otherwise have no access to them.


And who is in more need of hard to find goods than expats in China? Expats frequently complain about China’s lack of English language books, good coffee, cheese, large sized clothing, and Western brand “stuff,” from toys to baby formula to laundry detergent. And delightfully, all of these are available to be purchased online, from your home, and will be delivered straight to your door, practically anywhere in the country. Putting it plainly, sites like Taobao are an expat’s lifesaver. But there’s just one catch –Taobao, and other China-based sites, are all in Chinese, no option for English.

Maybe you need taobao english site? For expats starved for a taste of home, online shopping can be a life saver, and once you get started, you won’t be able to stop. Luckily online shopping is often more affordable than trips to fancy expat grocery stores, or import bookshops. The clothing you buy online is cheaper than what you’d buy in a shop because the overhead is less. Online shopping is an affordable, convenient, even fun way to get your fix of the goods that you miss in your day to day life.