Everyone knows about Chinese online shopping website Taobao. However, there are many lesser-known but equally good – if not better – online shopping sites with similar offerings in China. When you’re tired of browsing Taobao, here’s a list of five websites that sell a wide variety of items for you to choose from.
TMALL.COM
天猫（tiān māo）
If you’ve heard of Taobao, you’ve probably heard of Tmall as well. Tmall is the more “legit” version of Taobao under Alibaba. What this means is that in order to register a flagship store (旗舰店，qí jiàn diàn) on Tmall, a company has to have either a unique brand or be an official brand representative (with proper documentation), meet the minimum requirements, and have enough investment. It’s probably one of the largest B2C platforms in China, with about 70,000 brands from over 50,000 vendors, including international brands such as Nike, Dell, Ray-Ban, Uniqlo.
Specialties:
International brand flagship stores, independent brand products
Payment options:
Cash on delivery (货到付款，huò dào fù kuǎn), Alipay (支付宝，zhī fù bǎo), net banking (网上银行，wǎng shàng yín háng), bank transfer (银行转账，yín háng zhuǎn zhàng), credit cards (信用卡，xìn yòng kǎ).
BAOPALS.COM
保派网（bǎo pài wǎng）
Baopals, established in July 2015, is an e-commerce platform (电商平台，diàn shāng píng tái) that allows foreigners in China to buy products in English from Chinese e-commerce sites Taobao and Tmall.
The site works by pulling data from the two Alibaba-backed platforms and translating the info to English. Baopals also offers a customer service center (客服中心，kè fú zhōng xīn) to help facilitate transactions and logistics. It adds a service fee starting at 5 percent for each product.
You can also shop directly through the Baopals Official WeChat account, which gives you quick access to the platform, weekly product recommendations (产品推荐，chǎn pǐn tuī jiàn), and you can live chat with a Baopals service agent should you need anything at all.
Specialties:
Baopals is the first platform to give foreigners in China an easy and enjoyable way to shop on Taobao and Tmall.
Payment options:
WeChat Wallet (微信钱包，wēi xìn qián bāo), Union Pay (银联，yín lián), Alipay
YOU.163.COM
网易严选（wǎng yì yán xuǎn）
Yan Xuan, which translates to “picks” or “selection”, is a NetEase lifestyle online retailer. It has a pleasant, clean design and advertises itself as a filter that chooses high-quality (高品质，gāo pǐn zhì) products for the sake of the consumer. Yan Xuan selects goods with high-quality raw materials, natural materials, low to no formaldehyde (toxic pollutant), made with imported technology (even if domestically made), and guaranteed authenticity.
Specialties:
Natural products under the categories of: home, clothing (including maternity), kids’ clothing, accessories (including pollution masks), and food (Muji-style snacks, teas, herbs).
Payment options:
Credit cards, Alipay, WeChat Wallet, Union Pay
JD.COM
京东（jīng dōng）
JD operates with a similar model to Amazon in that it delivers goods directly from its warehouses (仓库，cāng kù) to customers and doesn’t have a middle man. JD is most often complimented for its incredibly fast delivery service (配送服务，pèi sòng fú wù) (can be within hours) and its product reliability (genuine products).
For customers outside China, JD has an global online shopping site called JoyBuy, which only accepts Paypal.
Specialties:
JD has categorized its website like a department store with a total of 11 floors, with the most notable being their electronics section:
1. Clothing, Shoes, Bags; 2. Toiletries, Cosmetics, Beauty products; 3. Mobile Phones; 4. Household Appliances; 5. Computer products; 6. Sports and Fitness; 7. Home Life; 8. Maternity, Children, Toys; 9. Health, Food; 10. Books, Music; 11. Car accessories and supplies
Payment options:
Cash on delivery, online payment, installment, wire transfer, post office remittance
DANGDANG.COM
当当（dāng dāng）
Dangdang started out in 1999 as the largest online bookstore (网上书店，wǎng shàng shū diàn) in China, providing over 600,000 Chinese books. As with most online retailers, DangDang has also branched out to sell other products, such as home appliances, clothing, tech, and anything a mother might want to buy (e.g. baby and kid stuff).
Specialties:
Books, audio (music) and visual (DVD) products
Payment options:
Cash on delivery, money transfer, online payments, and gift cards (礼品卡，lǐ pǐn kǎ)
Source: BeijingKids
Editor: Jade
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