Searching Taobao – No Chinese Required
To run a search for stuff you want? Here are a few quick tips to help you find good stuff.
Just Search in English
About 90% of the time, a Taobao search with an English word will hit the mark. Many products on Taobao are labeled with both English and Chinese names. And a growing number are labeled with English names alone.
Use the English Name to Find the Chinese Name
You can also use an English-language search to help determine the Chinese name. This will often help you find more products so you have more choices.
For example, a search for “drill” comes up with less than 200 results. But two of the results give a clue to the Chinese name. We can copy/paste 电钻 back into Taobao to get over 7000 results.
Online Machine Translation
Machine translators are perfect for the quick and dirty work of finding keywords and product names. --> Google Translate | Popup Chinese
Hot keywords: 背心-(singlet), 上衣-(top), 裙子-(dress), 外套-(jacket), 牛仔-(jeans), 短裤-(shorts), 打底裤-(legging), 袜子-(socks), 雪纺-(chiffon), 韩国-(Korea), 内衣-(lingerie), 非主流-(punk etc), 包包-(bag), 鞋-(shoe), 高跟鞋(high heal), 平底鞋-(flattie), 帆布鞋-(canvas), 罗马鞋-(Rome shoe?), 短靴-(boot), 女人我最大-(Super Woman), 耳环-(earring), 项链-(necklace), 面膜-(mask), 假发-(wig), 指甲-(nails), 双眼皮贴, 睫毛-(eyelash), 腰带-(belt), 玩具-(toy)
Find the Perfect Treasure with Search Filters
If you are search for a SD card on Taobao, you currently have have more than 27,000 options. Don’t just pick the one at the top of the list! Find the one that is best for you by filtering your results.
1. Category
The first filtering opportunity is with the product category. These text links display all the categories and subcategories that have results matching your search term. Click on any of them to see only things in that category.
2. Price
Next, you can click on the 价格 price to arrange them by price with the lowest costs at the top (not including delivery costs).
If you want to find items in a certain price range, type in your low or high costs here. This is useful if you want to find accessories for your phone, and you want to filter out the very cheap stuff and listings selling the phone itself.
3. Location
Filtering by location can save you time and delivery costs. This is also particularly important if you want to buy large things. Many Sellers of large, bulky items deliver themselves if it is within the same city.
These are just the quickest, easiest ways to find what you want. As you can tell, there are many other things that you can filter (such as second hand products, bulk purchases and Sellers overseas).
Do you use any other search filters?
You run a search on Tuesday for a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll. You find a bunch. Then you come back on Wednesday and there are zero results! What happened?
Keep an eye on the Category next to the Search Bar.
Sometimes Taobao thinks it knows what you are looking for, and will decide a category for you. This is often very helpful. For example, if I search for an SD card, it changes the category to only search within SD Cards.
Notice that the navigation bar is blue – we are in Taobao’s electronics section. But if I change my mind about the SD card and want to search for some stuffed Elmo instead, we might have a problem. Taobao thinks it still knows what I want, and continues to search only within the SD card category. So a search for Elmo gets zero results.
If I wasn’t such a smart guy, I might think that Taobao doesn’t have any Elmo stuff. Luckily, I’m super smart. So I click on the Category Menu and look for 所有分类 all categories.
That’s right! Over 1000 Elmo products. Tricky Taobao thought it could fool me. Notice also that the Navigation bar changes from blue to orange. That’s because we went from Taobao’s electronics market back to their general market.
Have you ever been tricked by Taobao’s zero-result searches?
Understanding Product and Seller Info
Each product on Taobao has a page with some basic information. This will help you figure out if it is the product for you.
1 and 2: The Product Title and an Image of the Product
Make sure you completely understand what is being offered. Don’t assume what is being offered is what is in the picture. If you are wondering why the mobile phone in the image is being offered for 30rmb, it might be because what’s actually being offered is a case for the mobile phone. At the very least, run the product title through Google’s translator, and even better, ask the Seller to confirm that what you see is what you will get.
3. The Price and the Shipping Options
There will be two or three choices here, including 平邮 regular mail, 快递 kuaidi and EMS. You may also occasionally see 卖家承担运费, which means that the Seller will cover the shipping costs.
4. Buy It NOW! Button
Despite the title of this button, clicking here will not commit you to buy it immediately. There are more confirmation pages ahead, so don’t worry if you accidentally hit it.
5. Basic Product Stats
Here is where you can find out how many sets of the product the Seller has, where it is shipping from, if it is brand new or second hand, and other various product stats.
6. Basic Seller Stats
Here is where you can find the Seller’s name, feedback rating, and if they are available for online chat.
This only covers standard product and seller information. Scroll down below this panel to discover the real meat of the product description created by the Seller. On the right side is a small panel with information about the seller. There is a lot of information here, but mostly, we will only be looking for the seller’s feedback.
What does this all mean?
1. The Seller’s Taobao username, which may be in Chinese or English.
2. The Seller’s Feedback as a Seller. This is going to be the one you want to pay attention to. Look for the number of transactions and the number of icons — more is better. The icons may be hearts or diamonds. Hearts are good. Diamonds are better. Crowns are best.
3. The Seller’s Feedback as a Buyer. These guys buy stuff too!
4. The Seller’s percentage of good feedback as a seller. This Seller has 99.15% of good feedback. That’s a pretty good rating, but not quite perfect. It might be worthwhile to click through to see what the negative feedback says.
5. Percentage of good feedback as a buyer.
6. When the Seller joined Taobao.
7. The Seller’s Taobao Registration Certificate.
8. Link to see all the Seller’s products.
Like What You See?
When you ready to rock, click on that Buy It Now! Button to proceed with the purchase.
Is this Seller Reliable? – Looking at Feedback
First please remember that most Taobao Sellers are quite reliable. And this robust feedback system is a big reason why. Some Sellers even have 100% flawless records after thousands of transactions.
I’m pretty laid back about who I buy from. But when I make any big purchase, I do a little research to make sure that the Seller is on the up-and-up. Here’s how to do it.
Look Here for the Seller’s Feedback Rating
Is This Seller Good? The Quick Answer
Here’s the quick litmus test for deciding if the seller is reliable. Every transaction is different, but in general, you should look for Sellers that have: At Least 500 transactions and above 99% Feedback.
Be sure you’re looking at the 308 circled in green above, which is their rating
as a Seller. The non-circled 7 is their rating as a
buyer. Take a look our
tutorial about the Seller Panel if you’re not sure about this.
Hearts < Diamonds < Crowns
These represent how many transactions the Seller has successfully handled.
Red, Yellow and Black Flowers
Click on the number (the 308 on the screenshot above) and you can see how a detailed breakdown of the Seller’s transactions. You will be taken to a page with a chart that looks like this.
Red = Positive Feedback
Yellow = Neutral
Black = Negative Feedback
There will be two charts on the screen. The top one rates the person as a Seller. The bottom one rates them as a Buyer. Yeah… buyers get feedback too.
Good Feedback is Boring. Bad Feedback is Interesting
If you have made it this far, you have to check out the what nasty things Buyers have said in the past. Even though a Seller has some bad feedback, it doesn’t mean that you should never deal with them. You can read about the dispute to figure out why it happened.
The Buyer’s complaint is grey and the Seller’s response is red / brown.
(Run it through Google Translator)
Update – new additions to the system
As of February 15, Taobao has added to their feedback system with a five-star rating scale to evaluate Seller Speed, Accuracy and Attitude. As this system starts getting used, we will update you with some tips on how to evaluate that information.
A Word About Leaving Bad Feedback
Bad feedback is all fun and games when you’re reading it, but you should think twice before writing bad feedback for a Seller. Taobao is their livelyhood, and a black flower can have a significant impact on their future business.
Make sure that this wasn’t your misunderstanding and always communicate with the Seller and do whatever you can to get any issues resolved. If need be, enlist a Chinese-speaking friend to who isn’t afraid to set you straight.
And remember how to avoid disputes: communicate with the Seller first!
How to Avoid Buying Bad Stuff from Taobao
Taobao has pledged to root out fake stuff from its listings, but you gotta be smart out there. Besides the obvious measures of avoiding ‘too-good-to-be-true’ pricing, there are several things you can do to avoid buying bad, fake or low-quality stuff on Taobao.
1. Check sellers feedback 
This will be the best clue. If you are really concerned, only consider Sellers who have 100% feedback on over 500 transactions.
2. Actual product photos
It is natural to want to go for the products that have the most professional-looking photos. But these were probably just downloaded from brand’s main website. Better Sellers will take a long series of close-ups on the product to show the details. Look for unprofessional photos with some flash glare and the Seller’s hand in the shot. If a product has generic downloaded photos, but you still really want it, ask for the Seller to take some new photos for you.
Look for real photos:
3. Compare the product against the official website
It can be difficult to match a product design precisely. If the Seller has posted actual photos, compare those against the designs on the company’s official website and examine the minutia.
4. What else do they sell?
If you’re having trouble deciding, consider the other products in the Seller’s inventory. If their other stuff looks fake, then your treasure probably is as well. Some Sellers claim to offer both real and ‘like-real’ merchendise. Don’t buy from them.
5. Look for these icons
Items with one or more of these icons is usually trustable. The seller tend to provide better products and services.
6. Don’t freak out
You’re a savvy individual. Use your best judgement and don’t worry about it too much.