Taobao is incredible.
Apart from its Chinese-only interface.
If you can read and write Chinese, then you’ll probably be OK.
If not,then ordering directly on taobao can be a pain.
That’s where taobao agent come in.
In this post, we’re going to talk about what taobao agent do and why you might want to use one.
Then we’ll introduce you to 5 of most popular options, and compare them to help you pick the right one.
Let’s get started!
1. Top 5 best taobao agent compared (in a nutshell)
In the following table, I’ll give you a quick snapshot of each of the agents I looked at.
I thought this would be ideal not just for those of you who are short of time, but also for people who already have an idea of what they’re looking for.
However, there’s a lot more to each of these agents than a simple chart can convey, so we recommend you take the time to go through our full reviews below.
| Basetao | Cssbuy | Superbuy | Ytaopal | Taobaotrends | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image |  |
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| Service Fee | 5%-0% | 6%-3% |
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0% |
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| Payment |
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| Exchange Rate Loss | 1 USD = 6.45 CNY(8.64%) | 1 USD = 6.85 CNY(2.97%) | 1 USD = 6.58 CNY(6.80%) | 1 USD = 6.60 CNY(6.52%) | 1 USD = 6.54 CNY(7.37%) |
| Shippping Fee | calculator here | calculator here | calculator here | calculator here | calculator here |
| QC Picture |
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No Picture Preview Fees |
| Customer Service | good ,friendly | ok,but response slower | friendly and professional | fast and personal | friendly and fast |
| Total Rating | 4.6/5 | 4.7/5 | 4.8/5 | 4.6/5 | 4.5/5 |
Note: The compared real live exchange rate I use (as of Feb 24th,2020 on xe.com) is 1 USD = 7.06 CNY
2. What taobao agent is (and why you might need one)
Taobao Agent is the middle man between the Taobao seller and the international buyer.
They will buy taobao items on your behalf,package everything and deliver it to you.
Some of the key services a taobao agent usually offer:
- negotiates with the seller and buys the product for you
- Product Quality Check
- return and refund
- Storage,Packaging,and Order Consolidation
- international shipping with ePacket,ems,ups,dhl etc..
Taobao agent makes it easier for you as a foreigner to buy from taobaoto, by:
- Providing a English website and English customer service support.
- Convenient Payment Method
- Enabling you to preview how your item look before it ships out to you.
3. What to Look for When Choosing a taobao agent
When it comes to choosing a taobao agent, there are a ton of options to choose from.
So, how do you choose the best one? In this part, I will go over 5 things you should consider when selecting a taobao agent to use:
- Website Interface – how does the interface work and does it make it easy to navigate and place order?
- Service – what shipping options do you get and if they provide value-added service like QC photos,insurance,measure size etc..
- Customer support – what contact methods they offer and if their support is fast and helpful.
- Price – how high is their service fee,shipping rate and the most easily overlooked cost-the exchange rate.
- Online Reputation – How is their feeback on the Internet,any reviews on trustpilot,reddit?Also try to avoid paid reviews that only say goods things about that agent.
With these factors in mind, let’s take a look at the best agents with their Pros and Cons.
Note: Unlike many other articles which are biased in favor of one particular agent, we’ve reviewed each of the agents totally independently and are happy to answer any questions you might have.
4. reviews of The 5 Best taobao agent
Now that you have a solid understanding of taobao agent and how to choose them, let’s introduce the specific agents we’ll be comparing in this post.
Here are the brave candidates:
I’ll talk about each of them in-depth, but if you’d like to try them out right away, feel free to click through the list above.
Superbuy
Superbuy, formerly known as Dotdotbuy, is the strongest taobao agent currently available.They offer professional, reliable taobao proxy shopping service to individuals and small business owners all over the world.
They’re also one of the few taobao agents that provides a free mobile app that lets you place order inside your smart phone.
You’ll also get access to their bilingual customer service and exclusive direct CEO email.Their support staff is very helpful and responsive and will help you work through your issues very quickly.
If I were start to shop on taobao today, Superbuy would be the agent that I would choose.
Pros:
No service fee for taobao order
Unlike other agents,Superbuy will not charge any service fee for your taobao orders.You will save some bucks.
Simple and easy to use interface
You dont need to spend hours of searching and reading to learn how to use their service,their website is clear and easy to use,you will be able to create your new orders in a few clicks.
Shipping fee is refunable
Their Rehearsal Packaging service can give you accurate billable weight,thus paying less shipping fee.They will also refund you excess shipping fee after your parcel leaves the warehouse.
Customer service
Support from Superbuy was superb,extremely friendly and professional.In fact,I think customer support is one of superbuy’s core advantage over its competitors.
Support of shopping from various Chinese websites
Not just taobao,if you use their expert service,you can also buy from many other websites like 1688,wechat,yupoo,weidian.
Cons:
Expensive shipping fee
Superbuy’s shipping fee is not cheap in general,especially for some postal service like EMS,ePacket.
High currency exchange fees
According to our calculation,nearly 7% hidden exchange fee is charged whenever you topup your money on their website.
10% expert servie fee
The industry standard of service fee is 5% – 8% of total order value,much lower than what superbuy charges.
Our Grade: 4.8/5
Cssbuy
Cssbuy is an arguably popular and cheap taobao agent.They have been making a name for themselves in the reddit replica community for a while now.
Cssbuy is one of the cheapest agent we tested. That benefit, combined with their wide range of shipping methods, makes them a good choice for anyone that’s looking for a cheap but reliable taobao agent service.
Pros:
Offers a lot of shipping methods
they offered various shipping method like China postal,the preferential line,and some tax-free lines.
Cheap shipping rate
their shipping rate is generally the cheapest among the popular agents I tested.for hot shipping method like ePacket,SF-express,DHL,they have a better price.
Cheap currency exchange fee
It seems every agents charge a hidden exchange fee,Cssbuy charges nearly 3% of the money you topup,this is the lowest I can find till now.
Mobile app to use
their mobile app is buggy,not as good as superbuy,but it is one of few agents that have this feature,so better have it than nothing,right?
Cons：
They don’t have 24/7 support service:
you have to contact them in their working hours and their response may be a bit slower than the other agents .
Slow delivery and process time:
parcels usually take very long time to be “accepted” by the shipping companies.
Cssbuy is located in Hangzhou,but the major shipping agents are operated in Beijing,Shanghai,Guangzhou or Shenzhen.so shipping agents need severals days to receive the parcels.
Many compliants about missing or wrong parcels:
Cssbuy gets parcels mixed up from time to time,if you search,you can easily find many threads talking about this issue.
Our Grade: 4.7/5
Basetao
Founded in 2015, Basetao is a Guangzhou-based taobao agent that offers Chinese websites shopping,repacking and shipping services to customers around the world.
Pros：
Low service fee
their service fee is only 5%,and when you apply for their VIP Promotion plan,the fee can be reduced to 3%.
Free QC photos
When your items reach their warehouse,they will take pictures of items for you to preview,and according to user’s feedback,their QC pictures are very clear and high quality,and it is totally free.
Good ,friendly customer service
I did not see too much complains about their customer service.and if you order on wechat or weidian,they will not add any extra fee,I know some other agents add some additional fee if you order there.
Cons:
High currency exchange fee
as far as I know,their exchange fee is the highest,8.6% ! you can see the comparison here,I guess this explains why they have such a low service fee.
Hard to use website
Basetao’s website is slightly difficult to use than others. Using it for the first time, it took quite a while to find what I was looking for.
No apps for smartphone
Basetao does not have an app,considering popularity of smart device and the amount of time people spend with mobile apps,they really should build an app to allow their customers to place order on their phone.
Our Grade: 4.7/5
Taobaotrends
Taobaotrends is another popular taobao agent with more than 10 years of experience in this fileld, and seems to know a thing or two on how to deliver a high-quality taobao agent service.
Pros：
Easy to use website
Their website is easy to navigate with logical division of content on home,clean and slick ordering system with options like Submit Order / Shopping Cart / Order Histories / Shipping Address / Profile.
Customer service
they have friendly and fast customer service,usually reply within 24 hours,and also support wechat livechat.
Various shipping options and cheap shipping price
they provide a lot of shipping method and the shipping rate is relatively cheap compared with other agents.
Free qc photos
they offer free and high quality control photos of your item,this can save you some money as many agents charge a fee for this.
Cons：
No https for their website
Https has a serious impact on privacy in general now days,users will feel safer when they see the padlock before providing their details on the website.
Taobaotrends really should upgrate their website from http to https.
High exchange rate loss
like many other agents,Taobaotrends also charges a very high exchange rate loss – 7%! it is one of the highest out there.
Our Grade: 4.7/5
Ytaopal
Yaopal is a relatively new player for us when looking for the best taobao agent. The company has been making a name for themselves in the reddit community lately thanks to their affordable prices and very good customer service.
Pros：
Customer service
They respond very fast, very helpfulI. if you have a big issue, you can contact one of their workers on Wechat instead of live chat.
QC photos
they provide good photos for you to have a general look at your item and they do take additional pictures and even measure the items if you ask for it.
Cons：
Lack of shipping methods
They only have three options – epacket,EMS and DHL. Cheaper options like SF-express,air mail,ups or fedex is not provided.
High exchange rate
they use a high exchange rate, which results in paying around 6% more than the real exchange rate.
Our Grade: 4.7/5
5. Which Agent has the cheapest shipping rate
Shipping cost is a very huge topic. I have already explained and compared it from 7 popular agents in another post. Here I will only outline the conclusion from that post:
USA Shipping cost summary
In general,the cheapest taobao agent for USA is Cssbuy.They offer a competitive price for most of the shipping methods.
For small parcels under 2kg, you can use EUB(epacket),the rate is cheapest and you can usually receive your parcel within 2 weeks.
For medium parcels, SF-EXPRESS and China Post SAL are good options.
SF-EXPRESS is faster and China Post SAL does not charge the volumetric weight which is good for large but lightweight parcels.
For heavy parcels(＞30kg), SF-EXPRESS and DHL are both acceptable.
UK Shipping cost summary
The cheapest taobao agent for UK is Cssbuy and Taobaotrends.
Cssbuy is cheap for small parcels and Taobaotrends has a better rate for large parcels.
Tax-free line and E-express are two of the low-cost shipping method to the UK.
Canada Shipping cost summary
Bhiner,Cssbuy and Taobaotrends have a good price for various shipping methods to Canada.
Bhiner is cheap for China post-SAL.
Cssbuy is cheap for EMS and DHL
Taobaotrends has a lower price for FedEx for large parcels.
Australia Shipping cost summary
Superbuy offers the cheapest shipping rate for most of the shipping methods.
Ytaopal also has a good price for EUB and EMS.
Taobaotrends provides reasonable price for DHL for big parcels.
Philippines Shipping cost summary
Taobaotrends has lower shipping rate in general.
Cssbuy has a better price for small parcels.
And for big parcels, both Basetao and Bhiner offers a cheaper rate for FedEx and DHL.
6. WHAT ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH TAOBAO AGENT?
You saw my analysis. Now, what about you?
What are your own experiences with taobao agents?
Your feedback and reviews are more than welcome in the comments section here!
31 thoughts on “Top 5 Best Taobao Agent of 2020 (with Pros and Cons)”
Hi Eric,
View Commentthanks for your reviews if taobao agents and your expert advice.
Is it possible to use an agent to search for items and have them delivered to my freight forwarder in China?
To avoid exhange fees, can you transfer directly in CNY? ( for example using transferwise)
HI,Willem
Yes, there are several agents that provide domestic transportation services, but I checked their price list and their domestic freight prices are not low.
Many people use transferwise to transfer money to small suppliers in China, but only personal bank accounts can receive money, and corporate accounts don’t seem to work.
View CommentI just stumbled across your page. It is very helpful, but a bit overwhelming since I am new to taobao.
View CommentI am from Europe and trying to decide on my first proxy, I have experience with using proxys in general though (Japanese ones to order from yahoo.jp)
It seem you are very educated in this matter, can you maybe recommend me proxys for Europe?
Someone recommended me spreenow, but the 10% fee seems a lot.
Also I wonder, is the fee always per item or order? If I order products from the same seller or even the same product in different colors I will always have the whole fee? (I mean for those proxys that have a fixed minimum fee, like for example 6cny+ 5%fee. If I buy shoes in 3 colors from the same seller-> will that be 1x 6cny +5% on everything, or 3x 6cny +5%? )
The agents I’ve listed are trustworthy, but the shipping costs are different for each agent.
If this is your first time using a Taobao agent, I think the two most important things to do are
1. compare each of them to find agents offer cheap shipping rate to your country.
2. pay attention to their exchange rates.
In the Taobao agent industry, they charge a service fee based on the total value of your order.
in your case,it is 1x 6cny +5% on everything.
View CommentHello, i live in philippines. I saw some of the comment and you replied if we live in SEAsia we better find for the freight forwarder. Do you have the list of them?
View CommentI don’t have a list of them,but you can find it on
View Commenttaobao.com
or 1688.com
or alibaba.com
Remove Taobaotrends from your list, they are out of business…..
View CommentHi, im planning to use just their consolidation service, do you know whos the cheapest between the 5 in domestic shipping?
View Commenthello. after reading your article I decided to use cssbuy. Now that they’ve received my items they want me to pay the shipping cost which is the double of the items price ( I live in Vietnam). Thats far too expensive for me so I asked them to cancel my order and give me my money back. They haven’t replied yet. I googled the company and almost all reviews say its a scam and the shipping costs and fees are very high:
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.cssbuy.com
Since reading the reviews I’ve been very worried that I won’t get my money back. Do you know what I can do:(?
View Commentcssbuy is not a scam, you need to contact their customer service.
View CommentHi there,
the things here is that they have ALREADY received all of your items. This means that from now it is NOT depend on the agent to decide whether they can refund you or not. They have to contact the sellers from Taobao that they bought items from for you, and ask the sellers if they are happy to accept the refund/ returns. And the sellers have the rights to say no for that.
Another thing is that, buying items from Taobao is very cheap, but you always have to expect that the international shipping fee will be almost the same or even more than the total cost that you paid for the items. and THIS IS VERY NORMAL.
You should contact their customer service and ask them if they can contact the sellers to ask for the refunds. But don’t expect that 100% you can get refunds back as some sellers won’t accept refunds.
hope that helps
View CommentHannah, thanks for your comments!
View CommentHello,
I would like to say I have used yobuy for many items, their service is ok
but they do add fees like lol and I just realised the hidden exchange fee but it seems they all do that,
their shipping can be cheap with their on the line of shipping however it can take ages!
thanks for this I need a few sites to compare prices with I shall investigate.
View Commentone thing would like to add be wary of the quality of these sites its not west standard unless you specfily with as much detail as possible.
You are right, I am also a youbuy customer but there service fees and shipping fees are outrageous
View CommentDo they deliver in Africa too the agents??
View Commentyes.
View CommentHi Eric,
Iam living in Sweden and asking which agent is the best to use .
best regards
View CommentFadde
you can pick one from the top 5.
View CommentCan you please delete my post from your page/ feedback ?
View CommentRegards
Fadde
Hi Eric.
I am currently living in Thailand. Do you know which Taobao agent would be a good one to use.
Thank you in advance
View CommentIf you are from Southeast Asian countries, the cheapest way is to find freight forwarders who can provide a dedicated line from China to your country.
View CommentTheir prices are usually cheaper, and they can ship many prohibited items to you.
You can find such a freight forwarder on Taobao or 1688.com.
From my very first experience this is so-called big company – YUYBUY turns out to be a single person fraud business. Let me demonstrate it step by step. I have made two orders under my YUYBUY account and paid for them via Paypal. In the same evening I got an email from YUYBUY that my account is locked and if I want to proceed my order further I have to pay 50% more via Western union, Web money ,QIWI or TT (bank transfer), alipay or wechat. During the process of clarifying the issue with the agent via chat I realized that this so-called company does not have live money to redeem the items ordered by customer. In my case the budget of two orders was less than 600 USD ))). I did not agree to pay any extras in order “to establish a trustworthy relationship with YOYBUY” and as alternate option the agent offered a refund procedure where a buyer losses money on exchange rates. Eventually I have opened a dispute at Paypal and guess what?! Right, the agent does not respond on it despite the fact that he/she has viewed the dispute.
View CommentChoose your business partners wisely and pass by those like YUYBUY.
The worst part is that they will message you that your parcel exceed the weight already calculated. Youbuy is a fraudulent agent
View Commenthi Max, what’s the end of your story ?
View CommentPLEASE I NEED AN INTERNATIONAL LINE I CAN CONTACT TO REPORT A SCAM
View CommentHello!
I have a question.
An item I’d like to buy requires quite a long time to make (like 6 months)
They require you to “Confirm Receipt” in advance
For Taobao consolidated shipping, can I still track the item to the Taobao warehouse even if I have “Confirmed Receipt”?
Thank you!
View Commentyes, if it is a trusted seller, you can “Confirm Receipt” in advance.
View Commentbut you need to ask the seller for the tracking number.
for pre-orders like this, it is better to use an agent.it will save you time and avoid unnecessary trouble.
Hi Eric!
View CommentI am curious if you know of taobao jewellery safety? I understand it’s probably relative to the shop but I am concerned about lead in products, are there any agents that check for this?
Don’t buy expensive jewellery from Taobao.
View CommentCan we order from Jordan?
View Commentyes, with an agent, you can order from any place.
View Comment