The Do’s and Don’ts of Shopping on Alibaba’s Taobao

Online shopping is supposed to encourage customers to buy online, with the minimum amount of hassle. But the virtual bazaar run by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Holding Ltd., called Taobao, is unlike many shopping sites users in the West are familiar with.

Taobao has an estimated 7 million sellers – from little companies to entrepreneurial individuals who want peddle goods online. For the best experience there, a team of WSJ shoppers in Hong Kong found it’s good to keep in mind some simple do’s and don’ts.

1. Don’t rely on the photo:

We love wallets. Imagine our dismay when the color in the photo of one wallet we wanted to buy didn’t match the description written in Chinese below. Veteran Taobao shoppers say some sellers aren’t very careful about which photos they attach to their products.

 2. Don’t Dawdle:

No kidding. Hesitate, and someone else will buy your prized wallet first.

 3. Don’t assume the deal is done until you get delivery:

Taobao stock is fast-moving. Again and again, we paid for items and got a message on the screen confirming the sale, only to receive refunds days later. Sometimes we didn’t get an explanation. Sometimes we were told the sellers couldn’t ship the product or they ran out of stock. With these guys, you-bought-it doesn’t always mean you’ll-get-it!

4.  ”Authentic products” aren’t always: 

The WSJ shoppers bought two jackets – both supposedly made by North Face. When we asked North Face later, they begged to disagree.

 5.  Do use Alipay:

Our shoppers tried to pay for purchases with three U.S. credit cards and one Japanese credit card. All of them were rejected, or the purchases were refunded without explanation. Alibaba says the site does take foreign credit cards. But we found it’s much easier to pay using Alibaba’s PayPal-type service, Alipay. In Hong Kong, you can even buy an Alipay stored-value shopping card at convenience stores.