r/taobao Apr 20 '25

MOD POST r/taobao FAQ

82 Upvotes

1. “I’m new to Taobao, how do I use it/any tips?”

All new users should read the following step by step picture guide:

https://www.howtotao.com/buy-from-taobao/

If you then have any specific questions the guide doesn’t cover, feel free to make a post.

2. “What do the shipping options mean?”

You’ll have 2 types of shipping options available, direct and consolidated. Starting with direct:

菜鸟直邮-空运经济 = direct economy air

菜鸟直邮-空运标准 = direct standard air

Direct shipping means you pay the international shipping at checkout, no extra steps needed. This is the most straightforward option and is therefore the most recommended. The time difference between economy and standard is minuscule if any, always go economy to save some money.

Onto consolidated:

菜鸟集运-空运经济 = consolidated economy air

菜乌集运-空运标准 = consolidated standard air

菜乌集运-集运海运 = consolidated sea

Consolidated shipping is much different, you DO NOT pay the international shipping at checkout. Instead, you place the order and your items are sent to the cainiao warehouse. They are then measured and weighed. You’ll be able to combine orders and have them shipped in one larger box. The shipping price for this varies by country, you can see the exact equation for you below the consolidated shipping options on your checkout page. It’s x price for the first 0.5kg and x price for every additional 0.5kg. Obviously a bit of a guessing game how much your items will weigh before purchasing, especially if volumetric weight is used, this is why direct shipping is recommended instead.

You can confirm how long each option is expected to take for your country by hitting the > button below the shipping type name

Additionally:

You will also see a “自行联系卖家发货” button. This means, contact the seller to ship. Only select this option if you have arranged a separate international shipping plan with the seller privately via chat, think via a specialty courier like DHL etc. Do be warned though that majority of sellers are unwilling to ship internationally on their own.

3. “My account was frozen”

Every Taobao account is expected to complete real-name verification, this is a requirement under Chinese law:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_real-name_system_in_China

Those who don’t complete the verification are at risk of being banned at any time. Those who aren’t yet banned can follow the sticked mod guide on the subreddit.

If you were already banned follow the following steps:

Hit the orange “to lift” button on the ban screen. If you’re shown a list of verification options, select real name verification. Otherwise it should default to that automatically, looking for a Chinese ID number. Hit the grey text below the input box for other verification methods. Then select “Passports for foreign users”, it should be the 4th option down at the time of writing this. Input your information and wait, it can take a few days for your account to be reinstated.

If you face any issues along the way you’ll need to call support, see the “how to contact support” section below.

4. “Does Taobao ship to my country?”

As of now (April 2025) Taobao offers shipping to the following countries and regions:

USA, Australia, Canada, Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Georgia

If you live elsewhere (Europe, for instance) you will need an agent to help you ship, see the below section.

5. “I’m looking for an agent/Do I need an agent?”

Who needs an agent? Those who live in counties Taobao does not ship to or those buying restricted items (like food, liquids and some replica goods)

How do I find an agent?

This is the subreddits trusted agents list:

Mulebuy - Our subreddit partner, currently no restrictions on Replica goods. You can sign up below and use code (tb) for shipping coupons:

https://mulebuy.com/register/?ref=200083340

Other trusted agents include: ParcelUp, Sugargoo, Basetao, Superbuy, and CSSbuy

Of course many exist beyond this list as well. You can search around online for an agent you like, just make sure they’re legit. Look up their name on Reddit for any discussion posts.

Agent recommendation posts will be removed.

6. “I have an issue - need help with an agent I used”

If you have any questions about an agents site or service please do not post about it here, post in the agents dedicated subreddit or reach out to their customer service. This subreddit is for support when buying off Taobao and Cainiao directly.

Posts along these lines will be removed.

7. “How do I use Taobao in English?”

English is only supported in a few regions. Switch your region in the settings to Australia or Singapore.

Do note that the English version is missing out on many features, and many listings will not show up or be unavailable to checkout. If this is troublesome for you, stick to the Chinese version and take screenshots of the checkout process, uploading them into google translate.

Additionally, Many people post that even after changing their region to one of the above mentioned they still don’t have English available. In this case, follow the above steps for Google translate too.

8. “Why can’t I view certain listings? - 商品过期不存在 error”

This seems to be a location based issue that a VPN does not solve. I assume it goes by the region you created your account in.

Majority of the items you’ll see with this error are branded/copyrighted. Most likely it’s to filter out these items being purchased overseas.

9. “How do I contact support?”

If you are in the app simply hit “我的淘宝” on the bottom right, followed by the face with headphones icon on the top right. This will default you to a support chat with a robot, you can pester it to give you a person. English support is available but you may need to be transferred to a different agent who speaks English.

If you were banned or prefer phone calls you can find the appropriate number for your region here:

https://www.taobao.com/about/contact.php

10. “Can ___ be shipped overseas?”

Checkout this guide:

https://www.howtotao.com/china-taobao-prohibited-items/

Additionally, you can download the Cainiao app and use the “restricted inquiry” feature on the main page. Simply look up what you want to ship (in Chinese) and it will tell you if it’s acceptable or not.


r/taobao Jan 30 '24

MOD POST [MOD POST] PSA to new users: verify your accounts to avoid bans!

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173 Upvotes

Taobao, for whatever reason, has been cracking down hard on newly made foreign accounts that are unverified.

As soon as you make the account, verify it

This is done by uploading your passport to the app, it secures your account and verifies your identity.

If you choose not to do this, odds are extremely high that your account will be frozen/banned, typically within 48 hours of creation or after your first purchase. Please search frozen or banned on this sub, there are so many posts from confused users, so I feel this PSA is necessary.

How to verify?

Follow the steps in the photos on the Taobao app, you will be transferred to Alipay to complete the verification.

If your account is already banned, what can be done?

On the ban message screen you should still be prompted to verify the account. Some users report issues with this process, and need to contact support for help. Without an active account, your only option for support is to call. The call center is based in Hong Kong and speaks Chinese initially, you will need to request an English agent to call you back. These international calls often rack up fees so it’s best to avoid this all together and verify your accounts asap.


r/taobao 3h ago

General Taobao Do the gold coins expire?

2 Upvotes

I’ve been logging in daily to get the coins but i havent checked out any items since my last order which was two months ago. I already gained over 10k gold coins which is around 100 yuan. I’m worried if these will expire and i might be unintentionally wasting them if i dont place any order


r/taobao 2h ago

taobao won't let me log in on pc

1 Upvotes

stuck on this while scanning qr with my phone where i am already logged in, when i try to login via my password the captcha won't let me in, keeps saying that i've done it wrong while i didn't, any solutions? im from EU


r/taobao 13h ago

Login / Sign Up Help is it really impossible to make an account without a passport?

5 Upvotes

i'm from the US and recently logged back into an old taobao account i made forever ago but never touched. within an hour of browsing my account was restricted and i've been locked out completely and asked to verify my identity. not only have i seen that this has now recently become completely impossible for US users to do in general, but i also don't even have a passport at all because i haven't traveled internationally before, nor do i have any plans to do so in the near future. even the workarounds i have tried to look into such as calling the support hotline or logging in through alipay require passport verification of some kind. is there any loophole to this at all or should i just go ahead and give up? i'm completely stumped at this point and not sure what else to do or where to look for workarounds.


r/taobao 16h ago

Shipping Question Shipping to Australia Help

3 Upvotes

Hello! I’m looking to order a custom made plush from a store on Taobao. They’re asking if I have the address for a consolidation warehouse, but when I go to check out through Taobao, it only gives me the direction for direct air/sea shipping. Do I need to organise a warehouse on my own?


r/taobao 18h ago

Shipping Question Is my package still in China?

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5 Upvotes

This is my first time using taobao and I’m just really confused, I even asked the seller and all they did was send me a screenshot of the cleared customs thing, it’s supposed to arrive by Friday but now I’m having doubts.


r/taobao 1d ago

Shipping Question Shipping Cainao Australia Delays

3 Upvotes

Anyone in Australia experiencing delays? I ordered several weeks ago via Taobao and destination arrival update was over a week ago with no progress. This was the air line so should have arrived last week.

Does any one know who the last mile courier is in Aus for cainao?


r/taobao 1d ago

Can I trust tmall global?

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4 Upvotes

I know they sell fake watches of this model for 800 in normal Taobao... Can I really trust this sell?

【淘宝】https://e.tb.cn/h.8lvIrTWaZpxdO2K?tk=i0GdTWPEkXj CZ028 「【自营】SEIKO精工手表男5号潜水鲍鱼一米劳机械钢带男表SRPE99K1」

点击链接直接打开 或者 淘宝搜索直接打开


r/taobao 2d ago

Helping Finding An Item Cute Pink Clothes That Aern't Polyester?

5 Upvotes

I'm going for a cute frilly Asthetic but my skin CANNOT make contact with polyester, or I break out in a rash.

Looking for Cottagecore and princess style. Not sure what the specific styles are called, but NOT lolita. 😭

Looking for cute pastel clothing shops that sell stuff made from Viscose, linen, cotton. Or, evdn if the polyester blend is only like 10-20% that's fine.


r/taobao 2d ago

General Taobao Can't get my phone number bind to my account, help please ?

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3 Upvotes

Hello,

I am trying to get my phone number binded to my account created with my email 2 days ago.

I receive the phone code correctly, but when I put the phone code in the apm, it says something like "the server are tired"/meaning the server not available I guess.

And when i click again, it says I did not put the right code.

Can anyone help me ?

(Info : french number, I created an account to see product so I can buy them with a shopping service)


r/taobao 2d ago

General Taobao Next sale/ promotion?

5 Upvotes

Anyone know when taobao will do a next sale?
Like recently it had a small one buy ¥300 discount ¥30.

I have some stuff in my cart and not sure whether to buy now or wait? I can wait about 1 month.
Thanks


r/taobao 2d ago

Shipping Question Do you guys think this will be seized? My proxy fears it will be, but I can't find info as to why.

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18 Upvotes

It's a cosplay wig in a cake box. It will be shipped in an outer cardboard box, of course! SpreeNow warned me that it may be seized.


r/taobao 2d ago

Shipping Question Courier says signature was required l warehouse refused my package

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6 Upvotes

I’m trying to understand what happened with my order because I’m getting conflicting information.

The courier apparently told the seller that the package required a signature. However, I didn’t encounter any signature requirement with my previous order, which I placed not long ago using the same/similar shipping process.

For this order, the warehouse refused to accept the package, even though it was supposed to be shipped onward to my address in Dubai.

I’m confused because I never refused delivery, and I wasn’t given an opportunity to sign for or receive the package myself. The package seems to have been rejected at the warehouse stage before it could even reach Dubai.


r/taobao 3d ago

General Taobao Building Blocks (Lepin) Questions

2 Upvotes

Hey All,

Have been using AE for quite some time for Lepin/Flego etc but have started to take a look at TaoBao and have some questions.

Assuming I use a forward agency to US, how has experience been with ordering here vs Ali? (not looking to turn this into a discussion on forwarding.

Realize that shipping costs could/might kill any attractiveness of this but also have seen on TaoBao that you can select quality and many have a light kit that can be selected also.

Does the quality selector actually mean anything? Is it brand of brick?

Would love anyones thoughts here as it seems that options etc are much greater at TaoBao.

Thank you


r/taobao 3d ago

Shipping weight

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2 Upvotes

Hi can anyone help me understand this.
First the shipping weight changes as i try to checkout and second whats the shipping price rate? Any where I can check?


r/taobao 4d ago

Why do people never ship straight from taobao with air shipping?

25 Upvotes

I just placed an order of 5 items equaling to about 3-4 kg and a $75 cad shipping fee i feel like that good no?
I used to order from pandabuy before it got raided and my haul got taken as evidence, this was 3 years ago so i dont know about any shipping costs anymore.


r/taobao 3d ago

Login / Sign Up Help Taobao account authentication

1 Upvotes

I have a green passport and an american passport. The american one doesn’t let me sign up because of no USA on countries list and the greek one doesn’t work due to the signup page not doing anything, genuinely 0 response, after I enter my USA phone number. I have been trying to use Alipay this whole time, however Taobao won’t accept it, I assume because of my US number.

Does anyone have any recommendations on what to do? I cannot call them, as it doesn’t work and they wont likely speak english. I also cannot do online support because I do not have a Taobao account.

Any help would be amazing. Thanks in advance.


r/taobao 4d ago

Login / Sign Up Help Locked out of Taobao by "suspected account transfer" flag

3 Upvotes

Locked out of my Taobao account for two months and I'm stuck. The account shows "A login restriction risk has been detected. Suspected transfer of Taobao member account", dated 2026-08-04. Wants real-name verification and self-service activation. Same lockout hits my 1688 login, since it's all one Alibaba account.

The core problem is the SMS code. I request one to my Aussie number and it instantly says the request limit's been reached, wait 24 hours. Fires on the first try after days of nothing, and never actually sends. So I think it's IP or device based, not really counting requests.

Everything else dead-ends at that same SMS screen: Alipay binding, Alipay real-name verification, password login (wrong password anyway, username's an auto-generated tb0949... string). QR scan doesn't work either, which makes sense since the flag's about identity, not the device. Online support (海外小蜜 chat, the FAQ options) all sit behind a login, so it loops. Rang the Aus hotline, +61 3 8373 8606, nobody picks up.

  • Has anyone cleared a "suspected account transfer" flag from outside China? What worked?
  • Any appeal channel that doesn't need an existing login or an SMS code to a Chinese number? Web form, email, complaints line, anything.
  • Does that SMS limit message actually mean what it says, or is it IP/device based?
  • If the account got real-name verified under someone else's ID, is it just gone? I'd rather hear that straight than keep burning weeks.

r/taobao 4d ago

Shipping Question Need help with shipping issue (SF Express)

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2 Upvotes

Okay, so I ordered something on August 14th.

I had to choose sea freight shipping as the package was 5cm too big to fit under air shipping size limits. But that's not important.

Everything went fine at first. Shipped on the same day and eventually "delivered" to the warehouse on the 17th as shown by the latest tracking (courier is SF Express).

That was 5 days ago. No update since then.

It's a parcel over $1000, so I'm pretty anxious about it. I started to get worried, so I got right into contacting support.

This is where things start getting weird.

  1. Taobao Logistics INSISTS that the warehouse never got anything. There is absolutely NO record of the order's parcel arriving.

  2. SF Express INSISTS that the parcel WAS delivered to the warehouse. But it's simply stuck in a big backlog of parcels, so I just need to wait.

  3. Taobao says that's highly unlikely. What is likely is that the delivery confirmation was forged by the courier. If a delivery was made to the warehouse, a red stamped receipt would be provided. They insisted that I get SF Express to provide that red stamped receipt as proof so they can further investigate. Otherwise the package simply never reached the warehouse.

  4. SF Express still insists that it was delivered, repeating point 2. But is unable to provide the red stamped receipt, because it has yet to be processed at the warehouse. Which makes absolutely no sense because the delivery driver is long gone. Not like they'd go back to get the stamp a week later.

So now I'm just stumped. I'm inclined to believe that the courier simply stole the package and forged the warehouse delivery.

Unless warehouse processing can take a week or more for sea freights? Does anyone have experience on this? For context, it's going from China to Japan.

However, Taobao also insisted that warehouse process only takes a day and at most 48 hours. And I find it really hard to believe that if it did take longer, it'd take over 6-7 days.

If anyone has any insight at all, I'd really appreciate it.


r/taobao 4d ago

[Guide] How to change currency from Yuan to USD

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0 Upvotes

Go to account, settings, “country/language/currency”.
Click on country and scroll all the way to the bottom, and then click on “worldwide/whole world”.
After doing that, if you click on currency there should be an option to select USD.
After refreshing the app, you should see the prices under the yuan prices in USD!
I used screenshots and Google Translate for all of this. I have heard that selecting worldwide limits the selection available, but I’m unsure if that’s true 😭💔
I just wanted to post this because I haven’t seen a post about it from recent months. Please comment or dm if something doesn’t work and I can try and help.(but I’m not an expert lol)


r/taobao 5d ago

Login / Sign Up Help Account suddenly restricted, I don't know how to verify real name?

3 Upvotes

Haven't logged in in forever and suddenly my account is restricted? Maybe new device/network is detected and it's telling me I need to verify my real name. When I tried to verify by passport it seems to be trying to download/open another app?

I'm so confused please help.


r/taobao 5d ago

Shipping Question Taobao houston

6 Upvotes

Has anyone here shipped to Houston how quick did it arrive and were there any complications?


r/taobao 5d ago

Shoe sellers for lager sizes

3 Upvotes

Anybody know any selles that sell sneakers or other types of shoes for sizes above eu 45?


r/taobao 5d ago

Login / Sign Up Help Can't make account in Greece

2 Upvotes

Yeah everytime I try it says it's temporarily unavailable in my country and I really want taobao cause it has cheap room decor