Tutorial: How to Order Items from Taobao

[SpudRider]

Taobao is the Chinese version of eBay. You can order many items from Taobao, including parts for your Chinese motorcycles. The Taobao website is located at www.taobao.com.

Unless you can read Chinese, the first step in negotiating the Taobao website is to translate the web pages. I suggest you do as I, and browse the website using the Google Chrome web browser, setting the browser to automatically translate from Chinese to your native language.

If you understand Chinese, you can order items directly from Taobao. However, since I can neither read nor speak Chinese, I prefer to use a Taobao agent to facilitate my purchases. I suggest you do the same. I have placed three orders using the Taobaotrends agent, and I am pleased with the service I have received. The Taobaotrends agent is located at Taobaotrends.com. However, you can also choose from a variety of other Taobao agents.

The agent will charge a 10 percent fee to facilitate you purchase, but I think this fee is very reasonable. Your agent will communicate with the vendors in Chinese, and he will communicate with you in business English. Employing an agent allows you to order items from a variety of vendors, and the agent will have all the different items delivered to him. After all your parts arrive, you can request photographs of the items to confirm they are the correct parts you have ordered. If any errors are made, you can rectify these errors before the items ship. After all your correct items arrive at the agent's office, he will group them into a single package, and ship them directly to your home address.

[SpudRider]

After you choose one of the Taobao agents, you must register an account with that agent. For this tutorial, I will use the Taobaotrends agent as an example, since this is the agent I employ. First, go to the Taobaotrends.com website. Halfway down the left side of the web page, you will see a purple box for typing your user name and password. At the bottom of this box click on the 'Create Account' link. On the next page enter the proper information in the required boxes. Enter your correct legal name in the 'Name' box. I suggest you enter your China Riders username in the 'Username' box. Choose a good password, and enter your correct email address in the appropriate box. The Taobaotrends agent will communicate with you using this email address. After you are done entering all the information, click the green 'Register' button.

After you register your account, you will need to wait a day or two before your account is activated. The Taobaotrends agent will notify you by email when your account becomes active. Before you leave the website, I strongly suggest you click on the 'How to Buy,' 'Payment and Fees,' and 'Shipping' tabs at the top of the web page. If you read the information, these links will describe everything you need to know regarding the ordering and shipping procedures for buying at Taobao.

[SpudRider]

While you wait for your account to become active, you can learn how to find the items you want to purchase from the Taobao website. Using your Google Chrome web browser, go to Taobao.com. You can search for items using the text box located at the top of the web page. Using the proper search term is the most important technique for finding the correct parts for your particular motorcycle. For this example I will show you the correct search terms to use for finding parts for the Zongshen RX3 motorcycle. If you have a different motorcycle, you will need to use different search terms.

In the text box at top of the page, type 'zs250gy-3.' The resulting search will yield about five pages of motorcycle parts which fit the Zongshen ZS250GY-3 motorcycle. Even using automatic translation, you will still need to recognize the photographs of the correct parts. If you can't recognize the parts now, you will acquire this skill after you become more familiar with your motorcycle. To advance to the next page, click the 'next' box at the bottom of the web page. To select a part for examination, click on the link for the part itself.

After you have searched all the pages for the first search term, you can try another search term to get more results. Another good search term for the Zongshen RX3 motorcycle is 'zongshen rx3.' Type the new search term in the text box at the top of the web page, and you will get about 8 more pages of parts to browse.

The Zongshen RX3 employs the same NC250 engine as several other motorcycles. Type the search term 'zongshen nc250,' and you will get about 12 pages of engine parts. You must be careful selecting these parts, since some of them will fit motorcycles other than the Zongshen RX3.

All of the items at Taobao are priced in Chinese Yuan. Let's say the price for a particular item is 55 Chinese Yuan. To find the price in U.S. Dollars, open a separate tab in your web browser, and search for '55 chinese yuan dollars.' When I performed this search, the resulting web page told me the price was $8.77 USD at the current exchange rate.

[SpudRider]

After your Taobaotrends account is activated, you are ready to start adding parts to your Taobao order. You must open two tabs in your Google Chrome web browser. In one tab log into you account at Taobaotrends.com using your username and password. In the other tab go to the Taobao.com website and search for one of the parts you wish to purchase. After you find a part you want to buy, you can add this part to your shopping cart. Copy the URL of the web page for the desired part into your computer's clipboard. On the Taobaotrends.com website, go to the User Menu which is located about halfway down the left side of the page. Click on the 'Submit Your Orders' button. On the next page paste the URL for the desired part into the text box, and click submit. Repeat this process for as many parts as you wish to order. Periodically, you can check your shopping cart. You don't need to add all your desired parts in one sitting. You can log out, and the next time you log into your Taobaotrends account, all of your items will still be sitting in your shopping cart.

The running total for your order is displayed at the bottom of the shopping cart. You will see information for the subtotal price of the parts, the 10 percent agent's fee, and the total fee. All these prices are displayed in Chinese Yuan. The bottom line show the total cost in U.S. Dollars. After you have added and removed items, and selected the correct number of items for each part, you can click the 'Checkout' button to submit your order. Once again, you must wait several days for the agent to confirm all of your parts are actually in stock. The agent will communicate with you via email in business English. When everything is satisfactory for both parties, the agent will request the first payment, submitted via PayPal. After you pay, the agent will order all your items, and have them delivered to his office. If you order a lot of items, you will probably need to wait several weeks for all of them to arrive.

[SpudRider]

After all the parts arrive, I suggest you ask your agent to take photographs of all the items. In this manner you can confirm every part is correct. If you have any problems, you can resolve them with your agent before you complete your order.

After your order is completed to your satisfaction, the agent will pack all of your items in a single package. He will then present you with a shipping cost, which is your second, and final payment. After you submit your payment via PayPay, the agent will ship all your items to your home address.

Shipping weights are recorded in grams. The shipping cost for the first 500 grams (1.1 pounds) is very costly. However, the low price of the actual items offsets this cost. The shipping charge for each additional 500 grams (1.1 pounds) is much less. If you want to keep your shipping costs low, don't order heavy items. I always figure it will cost about half as much to ship the items as the total cost of the items themselves.

[SpudRider]

This is way you order items from Taobao. If you are willing to make the effort, you can save a lot of money on parts. It will take a little work as you acquire experience in the ordering process. However, as with all skills, you will certainly get much better with practice.

I hope people who are experienced with making orders at Taobao will help answer the questions which will undoubtedly result from this thread. If we all help each other, we will all learn together.

[thillskier]

Spud to the rescue, AGAIN!! I will get right on this.

[jct842]

Thank you spud. Will have to get chrome going and check it all out. john

[Weldangrind]

Originally Posted by SpudRider

To find the price in U.S. Dollars, open a separate tab in your web browser, and search for '55 chinese yuan dollars.' When I performed this search, the resulting web page told me the price was $8.77 USD at the current exchange rate.

As a point of trivia, if you type "55cny to usd" into Google, an app will pop up that allows you to change the amounts as desired. I like to keep a tab open with the app, so I can plug prices in on the fly.

[Weldangrind]

Originally Posted by SpudRider

After your order is completed to your satisfaction, the agent will pack all of your items in a single package. He will then present you with a shipping cost, which is your second, and final payment.

At this point, you can request an additional shipping quote. Taobaotrends can offer quotes for EMS air mail and DHL for sure, and perhaps other methods.

[thillskier]

Thats good stuff also, and will come in handy, especially shipping info if I need some parts in a hurry for whatever reason (hopefully NOT though...can't imagine any good scenario I'd be in (personally) to need to do that, anyway.

[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

As a point of trivia, if you type "55cny to usd" into Google, an app will pop up that allows you to change the amounts as desired. I like to keep a tab open with the app, so I can plug prices in on the fly.

Thank you for joining the discussion, and posting the excellent tip, Weld.

[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

At this point, you can request an additional shipping quote. Taobaotrends can offer quotes for EMS air mail and DHL for sure, and perhaps other methods.

Thanks for posting another excellent tip, Weld.

As you can imagine, it is next to impossible to include all of the Taobao information in an introductory post. Therefore, I am counting on you, and other experienced Taobao customers, to post more good tips, and to help answer the questions which will surely arise as people start making their first purchases.

[SpudRider]

Yesterday I placed my fourth order on Taobaotrends. I received an email confirmation of my order today, and I submitted my first payment. My order is now being processed. I now enter the phase where the agent orders my parts, and I await for them to be delivered to my agent.

[katflap]

Thanks spud ,great tutorial