Both Taobao.com and Tmall.com are subsidiaries of Alibaba in China. Currently, the two are China’s largest retail platforms. Many Chinese people now find it very difficult to leave these two leading retail shopping platforms; Taobao.com and Tmall.com. They have basically become part of the Chinese’s people’s lives. When you consider these two websites, however, you will notice that Taobao is mainly less expensive considered to Tmall. But Tmall.com offers better quality for their products compared to Taobao.com, thus the reason for the higher price. Taobao.com is currently based in China just like Amazon is in America. However, when you compare the Logistics, you will find that the time taken between ordering and delivery of products and services from Taobao.com and Tmall.com is roughly between 1-3 days.

This article is mainly aimed t shed some light on Taobao.com and tmall.com; to let more people know about these two shopping sites and enlighten the customers about how they can save more when they purchase their products from these two websites. Why go to the shop or any other outlet to buy some expensive products when you can have them for a less expensive price? That is what this article is for; to educate and make the general Chinese population know about these two top websites.

What can I learn through this article?

1. about Taobao & Tmall’s introduction and FAQs
2. Preparation
3. How to search for Products
4. How to place an order
5. Information about Payment
6. Check my order
7. After sales 
8. Taobao promotion days
9. Why Do we need a Tabao & Tmall Agent?

1. about Taobao, Tmall’s introduction and FAQs

1.1 What is Taobao.com?

Taobao is currently China’s largest online retail platform that was founded by Alibaba Group in May 2003. It is also one of the popularly used online shopping retail platform in China with nearly 500 million registered users, more than 60 million fixed visitors a day, more than 800 million products on sale, and an average of 48,000 items sold per minute. Taobao.com’s sellers are individuals, and not enterprises.

1.2  What is Tmall.com?

“Tmall”, formerly known as Taobao Mall, is a comprehensive shopping site. Taobao Mall officially announced its name change to “Tmall” on January 11, 2012. You will also notice that only enterprises can be settled into Tmall.com, so the sellers of Tmall are enterprises.
Tmall provides 100% quality assured products. Plus, they also offer 7-day no reason to return the after-sales service. The buyer will, however,  need to pay for the freight charges if there is no problem after the products have been received.

1.3 What is Aliwangwang?

Ali Wangwang is Taobao and Tmall’s instant communication software. Sellers and buyers on these two online shopping platforms can interact with this software to interact with each other. As a buyer, you can ask some questions about the product, such as the size of the product, product details, product materials, delivery date, and quality… etc. using this software.

1.4  What is Alipay?

Alipay is also another subsidiary of Alibaba in China. It is a third-party payment platform in China. Its main features are simple, safe and fast. Now Alipay has become China’s largest mobile payment wallet. Think of Alipay as a foreign PayPal.

Alipay has worked with more than 180 domestic and foreign banks like Visa, MasterCard, and other Credit cards to establish cooperative relations. And this is why it has become so reputable among the Chinese people.

1.5 What’s the difference between Taobao and Tmall?

Taobao:  This is an open online shopping retailing platform that offers registrations only for individuals. Tmall’s products can be displayed on Taobao in some situations. But Taobao’s product prices are still relatively cheaper compared to those of Tmall.

Tmall: Opens registration only for enterprises (It’s Corporate Sellers). Taobao’s products cannot be displayed on Tmall website. Plus, the price is a little higher than Taobao. The quality, however, is better compared to Taobao. (This is according to my own personal experience and perspective.)

1.6 How can we identify which is TaoBao Seller or Tmall Seller?

There is a big difference between TaoBao’s Store and Tmall’s Store. The first is the logo on the upper left corners of each of the website platforms. They are different. (Taobao will display Taobao Logo and Tmaill will display Tmall Logo). Tmall looks better than Taobao.

1.) This is Taobao’s Store Demo

2.) This is Tmall’s Store Demo

2. Preparation

You have to do preparatory work before placing orders from Taobao or Tmall. First, you need to consider factors like whether the platform you choose to make an order from supports international credit cards or not, how to translate the website from the Chinese language to English, the shipping cost to my country, how to get discount codes… etc. You also need to learn about the operations of Taobao and Tmall’s processes. This way, you can easily operate the Taobao and Tmall platforms and buy the products you want. It is more satisfying to buy the same product but for relatively less money than in the stores and shops.

2.1  Learn it from Taobao International

1.) Taobao and Tmall’s logistics support up to 10 different foreign Regions: United States, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand

2.) Credit Cards: VISA, MasterCard, JCB… etc.

3.) Buyer Guarantee and Protection

Full refund: In the event that you don’t receive your products, you can file a report with the businesses and get a full refund on the same (including the total goods and freight).

Full return & Refund: If there are any quality issues or the product is not line with the seller’s description on the Web, then Taobao and Tmall reserve the right to support the full return & refund of the goods (including the whole of the goods, the first shipping and return shipping of the Mainland China section). You can also choose to negotiate a partial refund with the seller to keep the product.

2.2 Using Google Browser – The Google translator

I advise you to use Google Browser (Google Chrome). It has a translator tab which makes it much easier to translate these two tabs from the Chinese language to English; or any other language that you prefer. The accuracy of Google translation can reach more than 80%. This is a very good tool and is worth recommending. I’m sure you’ll enjoy its functions. Here is Google Browser link: https://www.google.com/chrome/

Here are the steps to follow:

1.) Open Taobao.com

2.) Click the right mouse button “Translate to English”

3.) All Chinese Texts translate to English (Except pictures)

2.3 Create Taobao account

For you to purchase any product from Taobao, you need to create an account with the website first. only after a successful registration will you be able to successfully make a purchase on this website.

1st step: Open Taobao.com, and then click “Free Registration”(Chinese is “免费注册”)

2nd StepTaobao account and then: Click “English”

3rd Step: Select your country and enter your mobile phone number. Move the verification from left to right, create your Alipay account using your Taobao account and then click “Next”.

4th Step:  You will receive a verification code on your mobile phone. Enter the verification code.

Here is the verification demo from your phone’s message:

Enter the verification code after you have gotten the message and then click “/confirm/i”

5th Step: Enter your password, your email, and choose a username. Then click on the tab “Submit”.

6th Step: After the successful registration /confirm/iation, you will also be able to use your account on Alipay, Tmall, Alibaba.com, etc.

2.4 Shipping costs

As of now, Taobao only supports international arrivals to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, USA,Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

1.) Here are the shipping cost to Hong Kong

Here are Weight and volume limits to Hong Kong

2.) Here is the shipping cost to Macau

Here is Weight and volume limits to Macau

3.) Here is the shipping cost to Taiwan

Here is Weight and volume limits to Taiwan

4.) Shipping cost to the United States

Here are Weight and volume limits to USA

5.) Here is the shipping cost to Malaysia

Here are Weight and volume limits to Malaysia

6.) Here is the shipping cost to Singapore

Here are Weight and volume limits to Malaysia

7.) Here is the shipping cost to Canada

Here are Weight and volume limits to Canada

8.) Here is the shipping cost to Japan

Here are Weight and volume limits to Japan

9.) Here is the shipping cost to Australia

Here are Weight and volume limits to Australia

10.) Here is the shipping cost to New Zealand

Here are Weight and volume limits to New Zealand

What am I going to do if Global Consolidation and Shipping and/or Taobao Global Direct Shipping can’t reach to my country?

As long as your address doesn’t lie within any of these regions, you will need to hire an agent to help you through the whole shipping process. Check to see if you are located anywhere within this list: Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

2.5 Install the discount plugin for Google Chrome(“觅鱼”)

Taobao and Tmall also have hundreds of millions of products that offer various eye-catching discounts. The simplest way to find out the discount code for each of the products on discount is by installing a certain Google Chrome plugin. This plugin will always notify you whenever there is a discount that you can use to get your products from these two websites at much cheaper prices. In short, you can end up saving a lot of money using this plugin.

How can I install this coupon plugin for Google Chrome?

The installation guide for the coupon plugin for Google Chrome is as follows:

Open this link from Google Chrome Browser: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/%E8%A7%85%E9%B1%BC?utm_source=www.chinapurchasingagent.com

Click the icon “ADD TO CHROME”

Click on “add extension”

This plugin(“觅鱼”) has two main features:

First: You can view the lowest price of this product in the web’s history.

Second: You can see if there are any coupons available.

3. How to Search Products on Taobao.com?

You can search for the product that you want to purchase on Taobao.com by simply typing in the right keyword on the search tab. I do not recommend that you use English keywords to search for the products that you are looking for because most Taobao sellers don’t use English in their product titles. In this case, you can simply use the Google translator to translate the product name from English to Chinese then copy and paste it into the search tab of Taobao.com. This way, you can be sure of a higher accuracy rate of finding the product that you are looking for on the website. You can search for lots of products if you are using Chinese Keywords.

3.1 How to translate English into Chinese?

Google translator can translate all the languages into Chinese and the Accuracy rate is over 85%.

1st Step: Open the Google Translator web link: https://translate.google.com/

2nd: Copy Chinese to Taobao and click “Enter”

3rd Step: Click the right mouse button to “Translate to English”

3.2 How to chat with Taobao sellers online?

You can also chat with Taobao sellers online by using Ali Wangwang. When you find the product you want. You can communicate the details of the product with the seller.

Tips: Taobao sellers usually type in Chinese only, not English. So you need to use Google Translator to translate what you mean to communicate to them in Chinese, and then copy it to Ali Wangwang. As of now, there still isn’t an English version of Ali Wangwang, so I suggest that you don’t install it. Aliwangwang only supports Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional.

4. Place An Order

Before you order any product on Taobao, you must fill in your address, your phone, and recipient addresses as well. Also, remember that Taobao only uses the Chinese language. So, you need to use the Google translator plugin again to translate these details into English to complete your order. You can place an order after you have found the product you were looking for.

Here is the best guide for you in this article.

4.1 Fill in your Shipping information

Fill in the receipt information as necessary. This way, you can easily get in touch and communicate with the Taobao sellers through a courier.

1st Step: Login to your Taobao account (https://login.taobao.com/), enter your username and password.

Tips: You can use your member name, email, or your mobile number in place of your username.

2nd Step: Move your mouse to the Account setting tab

3rd Step: Select the “Shipping Address” tab

4th Step: Fill in your information as required like your location, detailed address, postcode, consignee name, cell phone number and select “Set as default shipping address” and click “Save”.

4.2 Product explanation

The following diagram helps to clearly elaborate about how the Taobao website interface looks like. It is very detailed and explains just about everything that you might want to know about the product. Details such as product pictures, title, price, coupon codes, historical price, product color, quantity, and inventory have been clearly explained. You are also free to contact the product sellers in the event that you need additional information on any point.

1. Product Pictures
2. Product Title
3. Product Price
4. Coupon plugin
5. Shipping cost to your address
6. Monthly sales volume
7. Total Reviews
8. Tmall Points
9. Colors Option
10.  Quantities you want to buy
11. Stock quantity
12. Buy Now
13. Add to Cart

4.3 How to place an order on Taobao/Tmall?

First, you need to know the product details plus the previous buyer’s reviews of the product each time you find a product that you like. The buyer’s reviews will let you know the quality of the product and the contents about the product details can let you know the functions of the product. From there, you can place an order by yourself.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to place product orders on the Taobao.com website

I’m using a leather suit as an example.
Step 1: Move your mouse to the position as illustrated on my diagram (“价格上涨”). Don’t forget to install your coupon code plugin.

Step 2: Check the history price of the product.

Step 3: click on the Coupon tab. You can see the coupon code which is 598 CNY – 200 CNY = 398 CNY for this product.

Step 4: Click on it to get the Coupon (USE date: June 21 -June 30, 2018)

Step 5: Select the size, color, and quantity of the product that you want and then click the buy now tab “立即购买”.

Step 6: Check your shipping information and Select a service provider you wish to use (Different service provide with different shipping costs)

Choose one of the service providers

Step 7: Check your order information again to ensure that everything is correct. Double check things like the prices, color, quantity, address, receiver, and telephone number. You can see the overall price reduced to 200 CNY after using the Coupon.

Step 8: Enter your password and confirm payment

Step 9: Successful payment

5. about Payment

You can also buy products on Taobao.com/Tmall using an international credit card. Alipay now supports global international credit cards, enters credit card information and easily completes payments. Alipay supports international credit cards like Visa,MasterCard, and JCB. You need to pay 3% service charge/per order whenever you make an online purchase using an international credit card to pay for your products.

6. Check my Orders

You can view the status of the order in the purchased items section (“已买到的宝贝”) after you have purchased the product. You can view the order status; details like whether the order has been shipped, goods location, customs clearance information and delivery time.

6.1 Steps to view your order information

Step 1: Move your mouse to the tab illustrated below in the diagram “我的淘宝” (My Taobao)

Step 2: Select the tab “已买到的宝贝” (Purchased items)

Step 3: View your orders

6.2 Order explanation

I would like to introduce you to the order information as below:

1. Order date
2. Order Number
3. Seller’s Name
4. you can chat with the seller if you click this blue icon.
5. product price
6. Apply for after-sales.
7. Complaints seller
8. Freight insurance
9. The total amount of your order
10. Successful transaction
11. Order Details
12. Logistics information
13. Review
14. Additional review

7. After sales

There are instances when you may not be satisfied with the product you receive, or maybe you receive the wrong product. In such a situation, you can use the Taobao.com after-sales service to order a refund or exchange if you are unsatisfied with the product you got or you got the wrong product. This article mainly tells you how to apply for a refund on Taobao. Here are two ways that you can follow to guide you to refund your money.

Refund from from “退款/退货 (Refund/Return)”

Whenever you see this option still available in your portal, then it means that the seller is yet to receive your money. The status of the order is “卖家已付款 (Buyer has paid) ” and “卖家已发货（goods shipped)” or “卖家未发货 (Goods not ship)”. You can request a refund immediately. All transactions are usually completed 10-15 days after the goods have been successfully shipped and received by the buyer.

Refund from “申请售后 (After sale application) “
The seller has received your payment and order status display “Successful completion.” If for any reason, you are dissatisfied with the goods you receive within 15 days of the successful transaction, you may request for a refund via “After sale application.”

Note: You will pay for the freight charges if there is no quality problem with your products. The seller will pay for the shipping charges if they have shipped a wrong product or a bad quality.

The process of applying “退款/退货 (Refund/Return)” and “申请售后 (After sale application) ” is the same.

1. ) How can i refund from from “退款/退货 (Refund/Return)”?

Step 1: Find your refund item and click “退款/退货 (Refund/Return)”.

2.) How can you refund from “申请售后 (After sale application)”

Step 1: Find your refund item and click “申请售后 (After sale application).”

Step 2: There are 3 types of “申请售后 (After sale application).”

1st: is Refund only (仅退款)

2nd: is Return and Refund(退货退款)

3rd: is Exchange (换货)

1.）The term of Refund Only”仅退款”

You must select Refund Only”仅退款” if you don’t receive the goods (including not signed), or the seller agreed to negotiate the premise.

There are two options for goods status and for options for Refund reasons. You can select the options depending on your product situation.

Goods Status: Not Receive Goods

There are 4 options for refund reasons if you select “Not Received” goods status.

• 1.快递一直未送到（Courier has not been delivered）
• 2.未按约定时间发货（Not Shipped at the agreed time）
• 3.快递无跟踪记录（No tracking record）
• 4.其它（Other）

Goods Status: Received

There are four options for Refund Reason if you select “Received” goods status.

• 1.不喜欢/不想要(Don’t like/Don’t want)
• 2.收到商品描述不符(description does not match)
• 3.假冒品牌(Counterfeit brand)
• 4.其它（Other）

2.) The term of Return and Refund”退货退款”

You must select Return and Refund”退货退款” if you don’t want the goods received and need them to be returned.

There are four options for Refund Reasons.

• 1.不喜欢/不想要(Don’t like/Don’t want)
• 2.收到商品描述不符(description does not match)
• 3.假冒品牌(Counterfeit brand)
• 4.其它（Other）

3.) The term of Exchange (换货)

Contact the seller to negotiate a replacement if the  Product quality has problems, you have received a different size or different color from the original product you ordered.

There are 4 options for Exchange Reasons.

• 1.不喜欢/不想要(Don’t like/Don’t want)
• 2.收到商品描述不符(description does not match)
• 3.假冒品牌(Counterfeit brand)
• 4.其它（Other）

8. Taobao & Tmall ‘s Big promotion Days

Taobao & Tmall also have big promotional days that you can exploit and can help save you a lot of money. A lot of goods offer 30% -60% discounts which are higher than the usual discounts that you would find in other online shopping retailers. I suggest that you choose the products you want to purchase one week before the promotion day arrives. This way, you can compare the products that you have selected and use the promotional days to purchase these products at ridiculously low prices. We have the Double 11 day (11, November each year) is the lowest price for promotional products in the year and the activity time is only one day. You can get lots of coupons when you are browsing through the products.

On the double 11th day of last year, Taobao and Tmall turnover reached 168.2 billion CNY (26.7 billion dollars). Many goods and products were taken out within 1 hour of the start of the activity. Chinese shopping is really crazy. Almost all Chinese people will buy their favorite products on the same day. The products purchased on the day of the event usually arrive about one week later than usual because the parcels are usually 1000 times more than usual.

Taobao & Tmall have three major promotional festivals as follows:
June 18
November 11
December 12

If you want to buy products from Taobao, try not to miss these 3 promotional days.

9. Why Do we need a Tabao & Tmall Agent?

It must be difficult for you if you aren’t fluent in Chinese, because Taobao and Tmall have no English. Chances are that you will also end up finding a lot of inaccurate data since translator software are not 100% accurate. It is for this reason that most buyer that don’t accurately understand the Chinese language go for the agents to help them through the whole buying process. You may also want to consider getting one if you want to purchase a product, or products from these leading online shopping retailers in China. As this retailer continues to grow, it will soon have to adopt the use of other languages as well. But for now, it is in Chinese.

We have more than 10 years of agency experience and we can buy any products for you in China. We only need a service charge that you can afford. We accept PayPal for payment. Help us make Taobao.com the leading online shopping retailer in the world.

Conclusion:

Overall, these two online retailers are doing it big in China and the Chinese people are loving their services. Soon, we will see them go global and offer their services to more countries throughout the world.  It is the best way you can purchase the products of your dreams without having to break your bank while looking for the extra cash to get that beautiful product you’ve always wanted.

I believe this article was very useful and you can learn a lot about Taobao from the contents of the article. This article lets you know how to buy products from Taobao & Tmall by providing a step-by-step. In case of any inquiries, feel free to message or contact us on([email protected]).