Advantages and Disadvantages of Taobao Shopping
Taobao Shopping – Online Shopping is becoming more and more popular in this era. The convenience it offers and the variety of products and services that can be seen online make most people want to try it out. There are a lot of shopping sites on the internet but in this post we will introduce one of the largest online shopping sites in the world – Taobao.com. Taobao is a chinese e-commerce site which offers wide variety of quality products and millions of sellers which offer very competitive and affordable prices of goods. Taobao in chinese actually means “searching for treasure network”; Shopping in taobao and you will instantly know that Taobao is the best haven in the internet for affordable stuff!
Advantages of Taobao Shopping:
1.Extremely Low Prices.
Goods from Taobao are cheap primarily because of the low cost of labor in China, low cost of materials, low cost of doing online business in Taobao, and high competition among sellers. As there are a lot of sellers for a single search of product, you can easily compare prices for same or similar items.
2.Wide Variety of Product Choices.
Taobao is “the everything store.” You can find almost everything you need in this shopping platform. You get to choose from a variety of listed products from different suppliers.
3.Unique and Crazy Stuff.
You can find a lot of creative, unique and crazy stuff from Taobao. From adorable pet stuff, food-shaped pillows or socks to even a rent-a-date service, name it and you’ll be surprised that Taobao has it.
4.Super Deals, Sales and Events.
A great way to save more money when shopping at Taobao is to watch out for Taobao sales and events wherein countless shops offer huge discounts and vouchers! The top sales and events in Taobao are:
Singles Day/Double 11- Held every November 11th each year (thus the 11.11 or Double Eleven name)
Double 12- Massive year-end sale coming every December 12th – the Double Twelve (12.12)
Taobao Daily Sales
Clearance Sales
Disadvantages of Taobao Shopping:
1.Language Barrier.
For an international buyer, Taobao can be a bit daunting as the website is 100% chinese. But online translation tools like Google Translate can help you in that matter. But it becomes hard when you communicate with Chinese sellers, as most of them don’t speak and understand English. Communication is very important when you negotiate prices or bargain with a seller which is very common in Taobao marketplace, and also when you are confronted with issues like dealing with item not as described, defective product, returns, exchange, refunds, etc. And at times, international buyers are taken advantage by Chinese sellers because of their perception that foreigners can pay more.
2.Shipping and Shipping
Many Taobao Sellers are inexperienced with International Shipping and don’t support International payment methods.
3.The risk posed by scams.
There are a lot of scams reported within the platform. It is very important before transacting with a seller that you check seller’s reliability. You can do this by checking seller’s reputation, detailed ratings, customer feedback, number of successful transactions, etc.
To avoid the potential pitfalls when shopping in Taobao by yourself from overseas, you can use the services of Taobao Agents. Taobao Agents are ideal for buyers outside of China, and also for expats residing within Mainland China. They act as a middlemen between a Taobao Buyer and Taobao Seller. Read more about Why Using Taobao Agent When Shopping in Taobao.
