Online shopping in China: TAOBAO vs BAOPALS

Living in China is not easy, especially when it comes the time to buy stuff. The online shopping can be so easy, but also very tricky if you don’t read Chinese. Which is the main online platform used in China? and do you know about its English version?

TAOBAO is a Chinese online shopping website, headquartered in Hangzhou, and owned by Alibaba Group.

What does the name “TAOBAO” mean?

In Chinese, Taobao means “Search for Treasure.” Taobao.com has grown to become China’s largest shopping website and is ranked the ninth most popular website in the world by Alexa.com. Launched in 2003, Taobao lists millions of products and services from millions of vendors.

What is BAOPALS?

BAOPALS’ platform is a bridge that connects non-Chinese users with all 800 million+ products from Taobao and T-mall, enabling the users to enjoy a real-time updated English version of the products and service on Taobao and T-mall. The platform is accessible online as well through the company’s official WeChat service account.

BAOPALS has also added auto translation and search functions, reorganized products to create a clean, simple, user-friendly experience. BAOPALS prioritize high rating vendors that adhere to providing top-quality customer services.
BAOPALS official WeChat account is one of the most popular English Wechat accounts in the country, regularly creating 4-5 posts per week to promote products in an entertaining and informative way. Through BAOPALS’ Wechat account, customers can shop on the platform, view their orders and talk to BAOPALS’ live support team.

If anyone would like to purchase anything from Taobao without annoying your co-worker, you should definitely try baopals.com (Unfortunately the app is not available yet)