Chinese Taobao is one of the world's largest e-commerce websites, a combination of eBay and Amazon, only bigger. With more than 800 million items listed, you can find almost anything offered for sale.
For the Shunyi expat community, it’s even more convenient because Ruan works at one of the International Schools, which makes paying in cash incredibly easy. Their ten percent fee is very reasonable, if you consider how much time you will save, and using a personal shopper takes the hassle out of the whole process. So maybe it’s time to give your bilingual friends a break, and enlist the help of an agent instead.
If you are unable to read Chinese, or do not have the time or patience to trawl through hundreds of pages of items, then it’s time you got a Taobao agent. Agents, or personal shoppers, will do your shopping for you. They do the searching, buy the items, and have them delivered either to their own warehouse, and then ship them out to you, or will arrange delivery direct to your home.
In need of a fancy dress outfit for a friend’s Birthday Party, I did an initial search on Taobao, so that I had a few links and pictures of what I wanted. I then emailed these links to TaobaoPlus10 personal shopper, Andrew Ruan, who helps simplifying the whole Taobao shopping experience for expats in China.
“As vendors from all over China put their stuff for sale on Taobao, we can find almost anything. My customers only need to send me an email of what they need (description, a web-link, a picture, a brand), then I will get back to them with the links for those items available,” explains Ruan.
Once you receive the list of matching products, simply select the item you want, send your personal shopper the payment (cash, PayPal or bank transfer), and they will order the product for you. Items will be delivered to your home, and if you need something urgently, they will pay the seller on your behalf, and then you reimburse TaobaoPlus10. If there are any problems with the order, they will help you resolve the issue. Ruan’s recent orders have included Huggies diapers, Crayola coloring pens and pencils, gluten free pizza base, and Vogmasks.
2015年11月29日 星期日
2015年11月25日 星期三
CHINA INSOLVENCIES TO INCREASE IN 2015
In an attempt to revive the Chinese economy, the People's Bank of China clipped interest rates for the sixth time since November as well as reduced its reserve-requirement ratio for banks. The country's benchmark lending and deposit rate was cut 25 basis points, while its reserve-requirement ratio for banks dropped 0.5 basis points.
Hong Kong And Taiwan Companies Will Need More Due Diligence Into Business Partners.
Amid the high profile interest payment default by a property developer, global ,expecially china trade credit insurer Euler Hermes warns of heightened insolvency risk and deteriorating payment terms in China. In 2015, Euler Hermes Economic Research expects the number of Chinese companies filing for bankruptcy to grow +5% (representing an estimate total of 2,760 cases) as liquidity tightens due to the crackdown on shadow banking, overcapacity in the real estate sector and greater fiscal discipline by local governments.
However, because of the complex and costly procedures involved, insolvency cases in Chinese courts are still relatively rare in absolute terms. Euler Hermes notes that an increasing number of Chinese companies lacking access to bank financing must look for alternatives, with a growing number choosing to delay payments to suppliers or asking for extended credit terms to their business partners.
Hong Kong And Taiwan Companies Will Need More Due Diligence Into Business Partners.
Amid the high profile interest payment default by a property developer, global ,expecially china trade credit insurer Euler Hermes warns of heightened insolvency risk and deteriorating payment terms in China. In 2015, Euler Hermes Economic Research expects the number of Chinese companies filing for bankruptcy to grow +5% (representing an estimate total of 2,760 cases) as liquidity tightens due to the crackdown on shadow banking, overcapacity in the real estate sector and greater fiscal discipline by local governments.
However, because of the complex and costly procedures involved, insolvency cases in Chinese courts are still relatively rare in absolute terms. Euler Hermes notes that an increasing number of Chinese companies lacking access to bank financing must look for alternatives, with a growing number choosing to delay payments to suppliers or asking for extended credit terms to their business partners.
2015年11月17日 星期二
Sense to Taobao agent?
Why does it make sense to Taobao through an agent?
What's the catch for using chinese taobao agent? A small service charge. Why should I? Here's what paying that tiny 4 – 7% gets you.
1. Finally, you can pay with patience
Taobao uses forwarders that only provide airfreight, while Taobao agents provide both airfreight and sea shipping. The difference between the two options? Duration. Of course, shipment via sea is the longer, albeit cheaper alternative. And for the typical Singaporean, the sweetest deal is the economical deal.
2. Assurance against obvious defects
Quality and authenticity checks are often not covered because, well, they can't be experts at everything that's being sold in Taobao to know what's real and they can't read your mind to know what you consider to be acceptable quality.
So what do agents mean by inspection of “obvious defects”? They mean discrepancies in quantity, color, size, design and any other obvious visual defects.
Imagine this. You order an M-sized top directly from Taobao, and it arrives nicely packed – in a Large! You sigh. Even if you decide that it's worth returning, you might eventually incur a higher cost for your item. An agent could check for these things and performs exchanges, returns and refunds while the item is still in China.
3. Downsizing and safeguarding shipping
Your item is shipped domestically within China from your selected merchant to the agent's operations team there. After conducting checks, agents proceed to repack your items. If they are excessively packaged, they would be downsized and you save on shipping. If they are poorly packaged and prone to damage, they would be properly repacked to safeguard against defects.
4. Sidestepping Taobao sellers
Taobao agents bridge the geographical gap by helping you communicate with multiple sellers on a single platform. Instead of speaking with multiple, Chinese- speaking Taobao sellers who might not be as concerned with your interests, you need only to interact with a singular support personnel.
That's a whole lot of convenience for $0.04 – $0.07 per dollar spent. Using an agent makes sense the same way buying travel insurance makes sense. You hope nothing goes wrong every time you buy that assurance, but the one time something happens, it'll be more than worth it. Additionally, when nothing goes wrong, you still enjoy the personalised service from your local agent.
What's the catch for using chinese taobao agent? A small service charge. Why should I? Here's what paying that tiny 4 – 7% gets you.
1. Finally, you can pay with patience
Taobao uses forwarders that only provide airfreight, while Taobao agents provide both airfreight and sea shipping. The difference between the two options? Duration. Of course, shipment via sea is the longer, albeit cheaper alternative. And for the typical Singaporean, the sweetest deal is the economical deal.
2. Assurance against obvious defects
Quality and authenticity checks are often not covered because, well, they can't be experts at everything that's being sold in Taobao to know what's real and they can't read your mind to know what you consider to be acceptable quality.
So what do agents mean by inspection of “obvious defects”? They mean discrepancies in quantity, color, size, design and any other obvious visual defects.
Imagine this. You order an M-sized top directly from Taobao, and it arrives nicely packed – in a Large! You sigh. Even if you decide that it's worth returning, you might eventually incur a higher cost for your item. An agent could check for these things and performs exchanges, returns and refunds while the item is still in China.
3. Downsizing and safeguarding shipping
Your item is shipped domestically within China from your selected merchant to the agent's operations team there. After conducting checks, agents proceed to repack your items. If they are excessively packaged, they would be downsized and you save on shipping. If they are poorly packaged and prone to damage, they would be properly repacked to safeguard against defects.
4. Sidestepping Taobao sellers
Taobao agents bridge the geographical gap by helping you communicate with multiple sellers on a single platform. Instead of speaking with multiple, Chinese- speaking Taobao sellers who might not be as concerned with your interests, you need only to interact with a singular support personnel.
That's a whole lot of convenience for $0.04 – $0.07 per dollar spent. Using an agent makes sense the same way buying travel insurance makes sense. You hope nothing goes wrong every time you buy that assurance, but the one time something happens, it'll be more than worth it. Additionally, when nothing goes wrong, you still enjoy the personalised service from your local agent.
2015年11月8日 星期日
The Scooter I Didn't Buy
I make no bones about the fact that I want a scooter. Scooters are just plain FUN to ride.
So I really thought I was going to buy one Saturday but it didn't happen. Very disappointing.
I would really like an electric scooter. They're quiet, they don't pump out poisonous gas, and the ongoing cost of operation is just about nil. So I was really pleased when I saw on craigslist an electric scooter for sale down in Castle Rock. The guy didn't list an asking price, saying simply that he wanted it out of his garage because he needed the space.
I contacted him and arranged to come down and check it out. I also asked what ballpark price he was looking for because, as I told him, if he didn't want to let it go for, say, less than $1,000 I would save both of us the trouble because I'm not looking to pay anything close to that. He was a bit cagey–a good negotiator–and did not cite a number but asked me what my range was. I said $400 to $800 and he said he might be willing to come down to $800.
OK, I wasn't excited how that played out but when I checked to see what these scoots–an EVT America R30–sold for new I saw that it was around $2,000. This one had only 500 miles on it so I figured that if I paid $800 for it that would still be a bargain, even if I could have paid even less.
I went down and checked it out and took it for a test ride. All in all it seemed like a decent little scoot, perhaps a bit inexpensively put together, but you do get what you pay for. But the test ride showed issues right from the start.
I pulled out of his driveway, which has a Hollywood curb. A Hollywood curb, in case you're unfamiliar with the term, is when instead of putting in a curb cut for your driveway, the entire curb is sloped so you have an bit of a bump going in or out. I went over the edge of this curb and hit the street hard. Whatever front shock this thing had was clearly trash. Fine, you can replace shock absorbers.
Taking off down the street the thing showed plenty of pep. I went zooming around and–as I keep saying–it was a heck of a lot of fun. But I did some esses back and forth and made some turns and the front end was raising some concerns. It didn't seem very stable and gave what I took to be warning of steering head issues. I had no idea what it might cost to do work on the steering head.
Back at his place, pulling back into the driveway over the Hollywood curb, it was another severe thunk of the sort that could easily send you flying if you were going very fast. I told him about the front shock and the steering. He held the front wheel steady while I pushed the handlebars left and right and there was a noticeable click and shift that they made while the wheel didn't move. No wonder the steering felt unstable.
I was torn. I clearly was not prepared to pay $800 for something with these problems, but you don't see many electric scooters for sale so I was asking myself if there was a price at which I would be willing to buy it even with these issues. And I told him plainly what was going on in my head. He acknowledged the issues and said he would be willing to take just $500.
Finally I concluded that no, I wouldn't be interested in this scoot at any price. I told him it wasn't the shock; shocks can be replaced. It was the steering. I thanked him and left.
I got home to find that he had called saying he found the problem with the steering, it was just a nut that was loose, would I like to reconsider? I was interested but figured before I answered him I would check out what it would cost to replace the front shocks. I had to do some searching but finally found a website focused on electric vehicles and a page for this particular scoot. Here I found something very interesting. In the listing of features it mentioned "rear shock absorbers" but not a word about front shocks. I also found an owner's manual and in the diagram where it points out the different features of the product it pointed to the rear shocks but not to the front end where something that seemed to be shocks were clearly visible.
My conclusion was that although there is something up front, some sort of piston, there apparently is only the weakest possible spring and it is perhaps not something that can be replaced.
So with no actual front suspension and no way to do anything about that, I was losing interest rapidly. Then the idea that a single nut was the only thing holding the steering in place didn't inspire confidence either. I sent him an email saying no thanks.
Very disappointing. I still want a scooter, and I'd especially like an electric one. But I guess I'm going to have to keep looking.
So I really thought I was going to buy one Saturday but it didn't happen. Very disappointing.
I would really like an electric scooter. They're quiet, they don't pump out poisonous gas, and the ongoing cost of operation is just about nil. So I was really pleased when I saw on craigslist an electric scooter for sale down in Castle Rock. The guy didn't list an asking price, saying simply that he wanted it out of his garage because he needed the space.
I contacted him and arranged to come down and check it out. I also asked what ballpark price he was looking for because, as I told him, if he didn't want to let it go for, say, less than $1,000 I would save both of us the trouble because I'm not looking to pay anything close to that. He was a bit cagey–a good negotiator–and did not cite a number but asked me what my range was. I said $400 to $800 and he said he might be willing to come down to $800.
OK, I wasn't excited how that played out but when I checked to see what these scoots–an EVT America R30–sold for new I saw that it was around $2,000. This one had only 500 miles on it so I figured that if I paid $800 for it that would still be a bargain, even if I could have paid even less.
I went down and checked it out and took it for a test ride. All in all it seemed like a decent little scoot, perhaps a bit inexpensively put together, but you do get what you pay for. But the test ride showed issues right from the start.
I pulled out of his driveway, which has a Hollywood curb. A Hollywood curb, in case you're unfamiliar with the term, is when instead of putting in a curb cut for your driveway, the entire curb is sloped so you have an bit of a bump going in or out. I went over the edge of this curb and hit the street hard. Whatever front shock this thing had was clearly trash. Fine, you can replace shock absorbers.
Taking off down the street the thing showed plenty of pep. I went zooming around and–as I keep saying–it was a heck of a lot of fun. But I did some esses back and forth and made some turns and the front end was raising some concerns. It didn't seem very stable and gave what I took to be warning of steering head issues. I had no idea what it might cost to do work on the steering head.
Back at his place, pulling back into the driveway over the Hollywood curb, it was another severe thunk of the sort that could easily send you flying if you were going very fast. I told him about the front shock and the steering. He held the front wheel steady while I pushed the handlebars left and right and there was a noticeable click and shift that they made while the wheel didn't move. No wonder the steering felt unstable.
I was torn. I clearly was not prepared to pay $800 for something with these problems, but you don't see many electric scooters for sale so I was asking myself if there was a price at which I would be willing to buy it even with these issues. And I told him plainly what was going on in my head. He acknowledged the issues and said he would be willing to take just $500.
Finally I concluded that no, I wouldn't be interested in this scoot at any price. I told him it wasn't the shock; shocks can be replaced. It was the steering. I thanked him and left.
I got home to find that he had called saying he found the problem with the steering, it was just a nut that was loose, would I like to reconsider? I was interested but figured before I answered him I would check out what it would cost to replace the front shocks. I had to do some searching but finally found a website focused on electric vehicles and a page for this particular scoot. Here I found something very interesting. In the listing of features it mentioned "rear shock absorbers" but not a word about front shocks. I also found an owner's manual and in the diagram where it points out the different features of the product it pointed to the rear shocks but not to the front end where something that seemed to be shocks were clearly visible.
My conclusion was that although there is something up front, some sort of piston, there apparently is only the weakest possible spring and it is perhaps not something that can be replaced.
So with no actual front suspension and no way to do anything about that, I was losing interest rapidly. Then the idea that a single nut was the only thing holding the steering in place didn't inspire confidence either. I sent him an email saying no thanks.
Very disappointing. I still want a scooter, and I'd especially like an electric one. But I guess I'm going to have to keep looking.
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