I have never used taobao but I now that that is the most popular shopping website in China similar to ebay or amazon. And the prices are really low there, but too bad that it is all in Chinese and I can not understand anything, but luckily, there are taobao agents that will help you buy products from that website.
In fact, taobao includes two parts, the C2C part and the B2C part. Most people know taobao as its C2C part. The B2C part use a different domain tmall.com, but we can find that it looks almost the same as taobao.com. So taobao = taobao.com + tmall.com. Since taobao.com is the C2C part, we can find that goods on it are really cheap, but not that good in quality. But still we can find cheap and good thing there. On the other hand, tmall.com, the B2C part, we can find that goods on it is much dear than that on taobao.com, but it is much reliable in quality. taobao.com is really a big platform, but it is a web site totally in Chinese. And as my personal advice, you had better not buy thing on taobao.com, if you are not in China and you can't communicate with the seller in Chinese very well. Besides, sellers on taobao are focus on Chinese consumer, they may not have enough experience to handle business overseas.
Taobao is good for you to choose some things not very important if you are in China. Since the shops are in chinese and most of the bosses of shop have no experience in dealing with international business.
never, but i'm too afraid to use it as i dont understand chinese and only few of the sellers can understand english.. maybe you can try gmarket? they are selling good quality products with a competitive price
Yes, you are right. It seems like you know China very much. Taobao is not a good place for international shopping as their target market is China. If you want to buy 3C products, there are many B2C international website in China now. such as lightinthebox etc. And most of these B2C site accept Paypal and credit cards. (Taobao only accept Alipay, and the cards issued by the bank in China.)
Alibaba is a B2B site, it is not a good choice for customers, for example, who just want to buy pcs of Alarm locks, The seller may not deal with you. As you know, most of them are factories,trade companies, and they have the MOQ.
Like some Chinese buy Kindle, IPhone4 from the amazon.com now. It can save thousands of CNY sometimes. Although most of these electric devices are made in China, but they are cheaper in the US than that of in China. Don't know why, maybe due to the high tax rate here in China.
What you are saying is really right, aggree but that only some of the goods in the taobao is not in good quality
Hi, do you think I can build up a website to help any of you to buy Chinese products Since I'am Chinese. Any idea will be appreciated, and want cooperation too.
personally me not, 'cause i don't know chinese, but my friend did... a lot of cheap things, just what I remember from her impression))
I have used it a few times and if you don't know Chinese it's very difficult, but if you know it then it's fine just like buying off eBay or Amazon.
It's like a dollar store, its good for the things that don't matter. If you care and are willing to pay more, then go somewhere else.
Quality on taobao are not good. Many are counterfeit claiming they are authentic. Sellers are not very reliable either. They could sell you something then it's out of stock the next moment. The only good thing is it's cheap. Just like dollar store I agree.