Hi!

How you buy from Taobao depends on where you’re located. If you live in China, just open an account and order online. Here’s a guide to ordering items on Taobao: How to Buy from Taobao.

If, as I’m assuming, you’re NOT located in China, it’s a bit more complicated, as Taobao requires you to have a Chinese mobile phone number to register an account on the website & a Chinese bank account to transfer money. Therefore, here are my two suggestions:

1) If you have family/friends in China, you can ask them to order from Taobao using their own accounts. You can then have them ship the items overseas to you. Alternatively, you can pick up the items yourself whenever you go to China - or if someone you know is going to China, you can ask them to pick up your item for you.

2) You can use a Taobao Agent, which amounts to paying someone in China to buy and ship your item for you. This link is a very helpful guide to buying things from Taobao using a Taobao Agent: Taobao Tutorial.

Note: If you’re buying hanfu on Taobao, it’s essential that you either understand Chinese, or have a contact (acquaintance or Taobao Agent) who’ll be able to communicate with the vendor in Chinese on your behalf. Here’s why:

1) If you’re buying made-to-measure, you need to give the vendor your measurements & any other custom requests. The price may vary based on the amount of fabric used.

2) The vendor needs to be able to communicate with you regarding the stock of clothing (some hanfu/fabrics are sold in limited amounts & can sell out quickly), as well as wait times (wait times vary from days to weeks to months, and can fluctuate based on a number of factors).

Hope this helps! :)

mingsonjia:

fouryearsofshades:

Taobao doesn’t need a Chinese cellphone number to register. At least I never did. One also doesn’t need a Chinese bank account. There are private agents on Taobao that offer fund transfer. Or your friends or friends of friends can transfer money for one too. Or credit cards (Visas and Masters) works for most cases now. 

Taobao also provide direct shipping service for some countries when one is in the world.taobao site. I have no idea how it works as I haven’t use it yet…

the  Taobao Tutorial is very helpful