Buying off the Taobao app, experience in Malaysia
This is more like a note for myself, but I thought I'd write it down here so that if there are others wondering what it's like - buying items off Taobao, from China, and shipping to Malaysia. This is more for those who doesn't have the experience of buying things off Taobao, or just looking into stuff but found that it's way cheaper in Taobao (most of the case!) compared to any other platform like Lazada, Shopee or even Temu.
At the time of writing, you can get an 'English version' of the app through Play Store or App Store. The website, however, is still limited to Chinese.
Now, just after getting app on your phone, you'll be prompted with an option to switch the language to English right in the first few steps after launching it. You'll also may notice a small pop-up giving you information about 'LVG' tax - which is telling you that you'll be paying for a certain amount of small tax (if I'm not mistaken, 10%), when buying items off the Taobao app. This is a regulation in place, between Malaysia and the platform (regarding Imported Low-Value Goods), which is actually a good thing to some perspective, but more on that later (read the shipping part below).
When browsing through the app for items, you'll notice that the price are in Chinese Yuan, with a little mark just below it, showing the price 'converted' to Ringgit Malaysia.
So - your eyes are locked on an item, you add to cart, you're ready to order and put your coupons or whatever <- these are pretty straight forward like any other platform. However, there is one thing you need to consider which is the Shipping Method.
Just before you pay for the item (on the Check Out page), you should notice that the default/selected Shipping Method is 'Direct shipping - Air'. If you were to switch the option, the other option would be 'Direct shipping - Sea'.
As you can probably guess, 'Direct shipping - Air' = Airplane shipping, and 'Direct shipping - Sea' = Ship shipping. And the later usually takes longer to arrive (it can take up to a month). So what's to consider here, obviously you'll be thinking let's do 'Direct shipping - Air' because it's faster right?
Well.... Malaysia's customs. So this is more of a personal opinion based on what I've experienced. For items that you really value and do not mind if it takes longer to arrive (especially if it's on the expensive-side), you might want to choose Sea shipping. The reason for this is because when the items arrive in Malaysia, it'll have to go through customs first like it would for any other country, before it gets to you.
Based on experiences, if it's Air shipping and the item is quite big or on a pricier side of things, they usually get checked thoroughly by customs and can be held there for quite some time. I've noticed that it's not really the case for Sea shipping, or rather, they tend to get a more laid-back treatment and it gets a pass or checked just within a day or two, more often than not.
Of course, the big drawback to us is the duration.
Sea shipping can take up to a month.
So the simplified version:
1. Air shipping = faster (max 2 weeks maybe?), sometimes items are held at custom for too long and you'll have to check in with them, that process can be a bit tedious if it happens - good choice for low-price & small items.
2. Sea shipping = slower (up to 4 weeks), the chances of items getting held at custom for too long are low (usually 1-2 days), more of a straightforward process - good choice for high-price & big items, or just something you really value.
So choose wisely.
Right let's talk about these weird tracking numbers. So you ordered your items, wait a day or so for the seller to pack your items and bla bla bla - and within these few days you'll notice you'd get all these weird tracking numbers. What are these? Why so many?
If you notice the details of the logistics, you'll see icons that shows you stages of how the items are getting to you.
You'll see icons for "Seller->Shipment Warehouse->Warehouse Outbound->Arrived at destination->Malaysia".
Basically what it is - it's all different reference to shipments, as there are multiple shipments going on here. The process goes more like this, in stages:
1. The items gets picked up from the seller - You'll usually get a unique tracking info here.
2. The items gets to the warehouse in China for processing
3. The items gets sorted in the warehouse, and ready for shipment to Malaysia - You'll usually get a unique tracking info here.
4. Items gets shipped to Malaysia, either by Air or Sea - You'll usually get a unique tracking info here.
5. Items arrive in Malaysia
6. Items go through customs [read the Air shipping vs Sea shipping above]
7. Items are passed, then collected by a local courier based in Malaysia
8. Items are sorted at the local courier's warehouse
9. Items gets delivered to your address.
Referring to the above, from stage 1-3, you'd get one or two unique tracking numbers based in China - and with these, you should also notice that the icon for the tracking info shows a logo of 'Cainiao' - can be seen on the order status.
To check the status for these, you can search the tracking number on this website:
https://pbc.cainiao.com/orderStatusSearch
On stage 4, this is when they decide which local courier will deliver the items to you.
There are several local couriers that could be sending the items to your address.
It's only until stage 7, is when you can track the items here in Malaysia - which is the tracking number you get on stage 4. To check the status, you'll need to identify which local courier it is assigned to, and check on the courier's website. Check the first few letters of the tracking number that you get on stage 4.
For insights & examples - these are some known ones I've seen:
CNMYG is GDex
CNMYA is ABX or KEX Express
CNMYL is LineClear Express
CNMYD is DHL
CNMYN is Ninjavan
TMYLE is Lazada Express
CNMYB is Best Express
CNMYF is Flash Express
..note that these are just some, there might be even more, needs a bit more googling if you get one that you don't recognise.
And that's about it really, of what I'm trying to cover here.
There might be one more thing actually, last one -
Even with the app, there are some items in which you just cannot buy directly from the app, while you're in Malaysia. If you try to anyway, you'd get an error when trying to add these items in your cart. Though, there are usually various alternatives to these items in which you can buy, and therefore generally it doesn't really make much difference most of the time, unless it's really super hyper crazy niche. Now for these items - if you really want them and you have no other sources or options, you'd have to get a type of 'man-in-the-middle' service (a forwarding service), which I'm not going to explain everything here - the gist is simple, someone else in China order it, gets it, and deliver it to you. Plenty of these services out there and some are even equipped with apps to do these services now.