
The anatomy of a door-to-door Taobao delivery - rahimnathwani
http://theanthill.org/taobao-delivery
======
philsalesses
As someone who lives in Shanghai, this is an interesting look at how it works.
However, as an expat who can't speak Chinese yet, this website is one of the
larger sources of my frustration.

Need something simple and don't know where to get it? If you ask anybody, the
only answer you ever get is "TaoBao."

The issue is the way their page is coded, it's immune to machine translation.
Images have critical text that isn't translated and often the page loads
elements after translation has finished, leaving just enough Chinese to
prevent a foreigner from using the page. I've set aside an hour before to make
an account but I could not complete the task.

I wonder how much effort it would be to keep their site the way it is, but
smooth out the experience just enough to allow machine translation.

~~~
ximeng
If you want some help with navigating it I can probably help, drop me a line.

~~~
philsalesses
Thanks for the offer, though I actually prefer to only ask for help when I
need it. Otherwise, my apartment will fill up with cheap Chinese goods, like
the Shanzhai iPhone 6 I bought 2 months ago for absolutely no good reason. :P

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reedlaw
While Taobao can be a treasure trove, an important warning is that around 90%
of the brand-name items are fakes. As long as you're not after brand names,
there are a lot of great bargains. If you want to buy geniune imported goods,
better use T-Mall or JD.com. Neither of which will 100% guarantee you
authentic goods, but the chance of getting fakes is much lower because sellers
have to put up large deposits before selling.

~~~
contingencies
I think most people living long enough term in China to grapple with the
language are well beyond caring about brand names. :)

~~~
reedlaw
It's not so much about appearance as about safety. Do you want your
replacement laptop power supply to burn up? Are you sure that chocolate was
made to the same standards as those of the brand owner? Even for clothing,
North Fakes are highly unlikely to live up to the quality of the real deal.

~~~
rahimnathwani
These are good examples.

I bought an extra laptop power supply for my Macbook Pro from Taobao. It cost
16 USD, and works well and looks like the original. It's probably of
reasonable quality, but without the big brand behind it, I don't feel
comfortable leaving it on unattended.

I've never thought to buy chocolate from Taobao, and I probably never will,
unless it's from the official Tmall store of the brand owner, e.g.
[http://godiva.tmall.com/](http://godiva.tmall.com/)

I heard about a guy who bought a fake North Face jacket from the Silk Market
or Yaxiu or somewhere similar. It rained a few days later and the jacket was
soaked through :(

~~~
reedlaw
I had a fake Lenovo power supply burn on me. Couldn't tell it was a fake
except by the price being pretty low.

I purchased "Toblerone" chocolate on Taobao and it came unboxed (just a foil
wrapper) and didn't taste the same.

I've seen fake clothing that lasted for years and was probably worth the price
paid, but I've also seen too many items fall apart. Personally, I won't buy
fakes, but I will by Chinese brands if the reviews are good. We have a few
items with Chinese names, like a blender and juicer, that were half the price
of other brands but quality is quite decent.

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matthewwiese
Loved the story of the couple and the author's analysis. Would enjoy more if
done so.

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chrissyb
Im live in australia and speak only english and I regularly search and have
occasionally bought items from Taobao, including bicycle wheels, motorbike
parts and something else that escapes me right now.

I use chrome with auto tranlation turned on, i first translate my keywords in
google translate and then paste these into the taobao to search.

I'd buy more things if i could find a reliable third party onseller to deal
with - the last one was an incredible ripoff when it came to posting ground
freight.

If anyone has a reliable onseller, im open to suggestions!

~~~
dikensrover
well, i'd love to help. But the shipping isn't that cheap for oversea
customer. Drop me a line if needed.

~~~
chrissyb
I'd definitely be interested in talking further, tweet me @chriscbourke - I've
been toying with a few ideas for a curated marketplace for international
orders, i'll run them by you if you're interested!

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Wogef
Great to see someone going into detail on this- the Taobao experience is
awesome. There are a few flakey carriers but over all- nothing even close in
the US. It's become my favorite thing about living in China.

~~~
rahimnathwani
I usually buy only from sellers which have already sold lots of the particular
item in question, with good feedback. The ability to see sales volume and
feedback for a particular _listing_, and not just a particular SKU or
particular seller, really makes my life easier.

A few of the things I've bought from Taobao recently:

Bluetooth receiver for headphones $16:
[http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=38718297406](http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=38718297406)

48v 20Ah lithium battery for electric moped $192:
[http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=16566200878](http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=16566200878)

Ultrasonic jewellery cleaner $19:
[http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=13861247309](http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=13861247309)

Waterproof bluetooth speaker $6.36:
[http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=39374503285](http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=39374503285)

Bluetooth adapter for amplifier $3.75:
[http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=20525099344](http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=20525099344)

Custom-made venetian blinds ~$10:
[http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=15785435641](http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=15785435641)

Google Cardboard $4:
[http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=39893565312](http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=39893565312)

All of the prices above are in USD and include shipping.

~~~
desireco42
Are you saying they would ship to US? Maybe I am misunderstanding it. As long
as you can speak the language, they will ship to US?

I am big fan of Amazon and got addicted to Aliexpress...

~~~
rahimnathwani
Sorry, I should have been clearer :(

These prices include delivery to _Beijing_. I converted the CNY prices to USD
only to make them easier to understand.

I have heard that some Taobao vendors do ship internationally, but I have no
knowledge of this, and have only heard it indirectly from overseas Chinese. If
you don't speak Chinese, then dealing with unusual requests or customisation
can be hard, because it's all done through the online chat system, and 99.99%
of vendors only speak Chinese.

------
contingencies
Speaking of Strawberry Music Festival, there's one next week (October 2nd and
3rd) in Dali ... anyone fancy a trip to Yunnan for an HN China meetup? :) Feel
free to get in touch, email in profile.

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plumeria
Nice, I wish we could have Taobao in the West, or at least be able to browse
it in English. I've read elsewhere that many Chinese run Taobao stores as a
"national hobby".

~~~
rahimnathwani
I've heard that some people browse and buy using Google Translate. I imagine
it's difficult (because listings include lots of text embedded in images) but
better than nothing :)

~~~
dikensrover
Google Translate is not as much as reliable for English to Chinese
translation.

~~~
rahimnathwani
You're right, but I was suggesting using it for Chinese to English, not
English to Chinese.

For product descriptions written in Chinese (especially long ones), an
automated English translation can be good enough for the reader to make a
purchase decision.

~~~
dikensrover
Yeah, seems you have experience to deal with that. However, big sellers tend
to use photos instead of text description

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mlamat
There's nothing like the taste of lead paint in the morning.

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dharma1
great story. thanks for posting

