Can you purchase directly from Taobao and if so does it make sense to do so?

Yes you can, but only in a very limited and cost-inefficient way.

Firstly, world.taobao.com is actually only a very small subset of www.taobao.com itself. A much larger range of products at lower prices can be found on www.taobao.com, but you will not be able to buy from Taobao stores on it by using international credit cards.

Secondly, the Taobao site, including the World Taobao site itself, is entirely in Mandarin. The whole registration and checkout process is in mandarin and most international buyers struggle to navigate through it and would rather leave the buying to a Taobao agent.

Thirdly, the vast majority of Taobao stores do not offer international shipping while the small minority that does tends to offer a solution that incurs high international shipping costs due to both high default international shipping rates and a lack of efficient packing.

This is where using a Taobao agent and Chinese freight forwarder like CWELOGISTICS (www.cwelogistics.com) comes in.

CWELogistics will purchase from ANY Taobao store for you,the World Taobao site or the default Chinese Taobao site. Not only that, CWELogistics  can also help you purchase from ANY website in China, not just Taobao. Many of our customers also want us to buy from websites like Tmall.com, JD.com, Amazon.cn, Dangdang.com, Paipai.com, 1688.com, Vancl.com, Meilishuo.com and many others, all offering an extremely wide range of products at similarly bargain prices like Taobao.

Many customers choose to let us combine several purchases from different websites into a single international shipment from our China warehouse, significantly reducing their chargeable shipping weight, and hence their international shipping costs. This would be not be possible if you purchased directly from one of the small minority of Taobao stores that offer international shipping.

 

Consolidating packages at our China warehouse before international shipping isn't just useful when buying from several different Chinese websites. Even when buying from different sellers from the same website, for example Taobao, each Taobao store is based in a different location in China, often far apart from each other. Even in the very unlikely scenario that 2 separate Taobao stores were able to offer international shipping to you, they would do it separately from their 2 respective locations and this would cost a lot more than having them shipped together from our China warehouse.

Furthermore Taobao agents and freight forwarders like CWELogistics offer you a huge discount off default retail international shipping rates (often >50% OFF) with the likes of DHL, FedEx, UPS, TNT, EMS and others. We enjoy these huge discounts due to our ability to ship in high volumes. Individual consumers who set up accounts with these courier companies would typically not be able to enjoy such low rates.

Also, as your Taobao agent, when you need help making certain customization or negotiation requests to the Taobao store, you can explain to us what you need in English and we will communicate with the Taobao store for you in Mandarin. Every customer who submits an order to CWELogistics is assigned a dedicated personal customer service representative who will cater to your individual purchasing and international shipping preferences and liaise with you throughout every stage of your transaction with CWELogistics.

To make an order, click here now.