How a Shopping Agent Works
Weidian and Taobao sellers sell to buyers in China. A shopping agent is a company in China that buys for you, receives the items, photographs them and ships them abroad.
Why you need one
Chinese marketplaces are in Chinese, need a Chinese payment method and sellers ship only inside China. An agent handles all three: you pay the agent, it pays the seller, and it ships to your country.
What you pay
First the item price plus a few yuan of domestic shipping to the warehouse. Later, when your items have arrived, international shipping by weight. Agents earn on the exchange rate and on shipping, so the dollar price of the same item differs between agents.
The order step by step
Paste a link or use the buy button on a rep page, choose size and colour, pay. The agent orders from the seller, usually within a day. The seller ships to the warehouse in two to five days. You get QC photos, accept or return the item, then submit a parcel with everything you want shipped together.
Choosing an agent
The differences are the exchange-rate margin, shipping lines and prices, coupons for new accounts and customer service. See our comparison of rep agents for the numbers we use on this site.
