How to buy from Weidian, Taobao and 1688
Weidian, Taobao and 1688 are domestic Chinese marketplaces. They do not ship abroad and they do not take foreign cards — which is why every order goes through a shopping agent. Here is the whole process, start to finish.
6 min read
1. Pick an agent
A shopping agent is a company with a warehouse in China. They buy the item on your behalf, receive it, photograph it, and forward it to you once you choose a shipping line. Every agent can buy the same item from the same seller — what differs is the service fee, the quality of their photos, how fast they process, and which shipping lines they offer to your country.
You do not have to commit to one. Most people keep two: a main agent and a backup for when a line is suspended or a warehouse gets slow.
2. Find the item
This is the part the community solves collectively. Sellers rarely surface in search, so people share links — that is what a spreadsheet is. Every entry in this catalogue links straight to the original listing, so you can hand the same link to whichever agent you use.
If you have only a photo, reverse image search is faster than describing it. If you have a link from a friend, a Discord message or a share blob full of Chinese characters, the converter cleans it up and opens it at every agent.
3. Order and wait for the warehouse
You paste the link into your agent, pick size and colour, and pay for the item plus domestic shipping inside China — usually a few yuan. The seller ships to the agent's warehouse, which takes roughly three to seven days. Nothing has crossed a border yet, and you have not paid for international shipping.
4. Check the QC photos
When the parcel arrives, the agent photographs it. This is your one chance to inspect the item before it ships: stitching, logos, colour, the size on the label. If something is wrong you tell the agent, and they deal with the seller. Once it ships, you own it.
5. Choose a shipping line and pay
Now you pick how it travels. This is where most of the cost lives — for cheap items, shipping regularly exceeds the item price. Lines differ in speed, in how they handle customs, and in what they refuse to carry. Weight decides the rest, and bulky-but-light parcels get charged on volume rather than mass.
6. Customs, then your door
Depending on your country and the declared value, you may pay import VAT and duty on arrival. Some lines include it, most do not. It is worth knowing the number in advance rather than being surprised by a courier invoice.
What it costs, roughly
Item price, plus a few yuan domestic shipping, plus the agent's service and payment fees, plus international shipping, plus possible customs. For a single hoodie the shipping alone is often €15–30; the more you consolidate into one parcel, the better the ratio gets. That is why people build hauls rather than ordering one item at a time.