We embarked on Taobao after reading various renotalk T-blogs/blogs that it was possible and cost-saving. I had in total 3 shipments, all through the forwarder company Amcon Express (http://www.amconexpress.com/). So I will share my experience here. All the items I bought can be found via the xls.
How does Amcon Express work?
It is a forwarding company. You purchase the items from Taobao by yourself and provide the seller the address details of Amcon’s warehouse in Guangdong. Then you provide Amcon the list of items bought, price and the tracking number (运单号码). Amcon will collate your items and freight them over via sea, and deliver them to your house.
Costs: Ocean freight is RMB550.00/CBM + $35.00/SET for Documentation + GST.
As compared to other Taobao agents, Amcon does not provide additional services e.g.,insurance, additional wrapping, checking of goods etc etc.
Navigating the Taobao website:
This was pretty simple, and extremely addictive. While Google Translate was my life-saver, it wasn’t always helpful.
For industrial stuff, try the terms 工业.
I downloaded the AliWangWang app (阿里旺旺) that allows you to chat with the sellers. It was especially helpful to ask the seller about the item e.g., what kind of light bulbs came with the lights (e.g., warm, white, how many watt), and in one case, I asked the seller to waive the shipping costs.
Be mindful of the shipping costs. Set the Country as 广东 and the 运费 will adjust accordingly. Therefore in addition to the price of the goods, do take into account the shipping that can be quite substantial for some shops.
Experience with Amcon
I mostly liaised with May (amconexpress@hotmail.com) who was generally prompt and reliable. I would buy the items from Taobao over a span of a week. Once the sellers deliver the item, the Taobao website would provide updates of the tracking number and I would fill up the form to send to Amcon. May would email me every day to update me which items have arrived at the 广东 warehouse (takes around 3 – 4 days). Once all have arrived, Amcon ships it to Singapore and this takes around 7-8 days, after which you can arrange for delivery time and date. It was frustrating that they were unable to give me an exact time, mostly a time period (e.g., 2 to 6pm) but it was good that they delivered on Sat mornings. In total, factoring the shipping within China, and Ocean freight etc etc – the waiting time was around 2-3 weeks.
Our take:
- Taobao through Amcon is only worth it if you buy MANY (and) BULKY items. Do note that Amcon charges a minimum of 1 cubic metre per shipment. After accounting for the Amcon shipping costs, the items costs around 30% more than the price on the Taobao website. Do check out other Singapore furniture websites (e.g., fortytwo.sg) as they do offer similar items. E.g., the de-stressed chairs were cheaper in http://www.fortytwo.sg/ (though with less options for colour and design). We had the most cost-savings on our lights. For those of you worried about the light bulbs being compatible – we asked the sellers what type of light bulb they used (e.g., E27) which are easily found in Singapore. If not, we bought additional bulbs. If you are buying table lamps, you need an adaptor.
Taobao Army of Chairs - Be prepared for the additional hassle. Buying things yourself on Taobao is fun, but the documentation was time-consuming, and it was even worse when I received defective items once. The seller was kind enough to offer free shipping BUT only within China, so I had to wait for my second shipment with Amcon to get it. Also, for furniture items – you have to assemble them yourself. We took quite a while to assemble the birdie chair – I asked the seller for manual, instead the seller offered to give me a call, but that wasnt helpful for us – in the end, we did it by analysing the photos on the Taobao website. See the screws for the birdie chair!
Final word:
Taobao is addictive. Beware.
And I love my lights.
Jumbo Bnb 