[[list_of_buying_sites]]
List of Cheap Chinese Online Buying sites
Shops List
China
Larger/Well-Known/Older Stores (//**NO ENDORSEMENT IMPLIED!**//):
- www.dx.com -shut down as of March 2023
Marketplaces:
- www.dd4.com As of 14/8/21 website is non English
Alphabetical order of the rest:
- www.cndirect.com -shut down as of November 2023
- www.dresslink.com As of 10/8/2021, 502 ERROR
Hong Kong
Electronics Store:
Taiwan
Marketplaces:
Electronics Marketplace:
Chinese Price Comparison Sites
China
These sites do price comparison for the Chinese buying sites:
Compare Imports Not Available Now
Hong Kong
General / Shopping
- Consumer Council - Online Price Watch Price compare by hk government
Electronics & Computers
Macau
General / Shopping
- Choice88 Department store price compare
Disclaimer
This list is not in any way a recommendation, sanction or endorsement by OzBargain, its members or its affiliates. This list is provided for information purposes only. Sites on this list have not gone through verification. Also the quality of products bought from these sites is often hit-and-miss: You get what you pay for.
List Description
A list of various Online sites for buying direct from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The list of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan's retail shops are more genuine and reliable, price are variable.
Glossary
These Chinese terms are commonly used to describe where is the good from.
- 行貨 - Official sales channel goods
- Meaning: Goods from authorized, official approved sales channel
- 水貨 - Parallel import goods (Grey market goods)
- Meaning: Goods from unauthorized dealer. Same quality as the official one, could be seen as a 100% new second hand. Warranty may be official, unofficial or voided.
- 假貨 - Fake goods
- Meaning: Fake goods that claimed that is real and selling with legitimate price (or even higher). Bad quality.
- 仿品 - Cloned goods
- Meaning: Not genuine, and it is clearly written that it is a clone, and the price reflect it. Fair quality. A bad quality clone is consider as fake good.
Parallel import goods (水貨) are cheaper than official sales channel goods (行貨), but they are often fake (假貨) if they have worse quality. Cloned goods (仿品) are mean to be cloned, some of them are high quality enough to not telling the different from the real.
Tips and Advice
- As stated above, OzBargain, its members or its affiliates cannot be held responsible by for any shops listed here. If you do decide to use these sites, they are not sanctioned or recommended by Ozbargain.
- Products bought from here are often much cheaper than a similar product at a retail store, but this often comes at the cost of quality. Which could means the products did not pass the QC.
- Currency
- Chinese (China) store are selling in USD/RMB and often include free shipping
- Hong Kong's store are selling in HKD, but USD (or AUD) are also acceptable depending on seller
- Macau's store are selling in MOP, HKD/USD are usually accepted
- Taiwan 's store are selling in NTD, few store accept USD
- Shipping
- varies widely between stores, but generally expect anything from 15-60 days.
- Large numbers of products in a single order may cause your order to be delayed, as sellers tend to wait till all items are instock before shipping.
- DHL/EMS(China only) are usually good options for faster postage at higher cost.
- Language
- Many sites have an English interface, but this not necessarily means the customer service/seller can speak in English.
- If there is a need to communicate with the customer service/seller, try speaking in English first, if there is no response, try using translation software translating words in Chinese
- Bargain
- Searching for coupons for a site before checking out; often you can save around 5% with a simple google search.
- If buying from a marketplace, try contract the seller for discount, the easiest way to get a discount is buying multiple items from the same store
- Most of the stores listed above have been used by Ozbargain members – try searching the forums before trying a store.
- Some of the above listings are marketplaces for sellers (like eBay), so you need to verify the quality of the seller as well as the quality of the marketplace.
- Some sites may appear to be missing from this list – some have been banned on Ozbargain for spam, sockpuppeting or other major issues, if you notice one missing, try searching the forum first or ask a mod.
- Many sites have Affiliate Programs, where you can get a commission on sales. Do not abuse this on Ozbargain, you will be banned. See Posting Referral Links for more info.
Prudent Warnings
Payment
- NEVER pay via credit card to avoid credit card fraud.
- Pay with PayPal where possible to benefit from PayPal buyer protection.
- Use the marketplace authorized payment methods to pay the seller if possible.
Product
- Use your judgement – if its too good to be true, it probably is.
- It is YOUR responsibility to avoid importing illegal and dangerous products. Stay away from imitation weapons, lasers, fireworks, telecom/radio equipment that operates in illegal frequencies. Customs will pick it up and you will be fined $$$. Don't trust the sellers specs on lasers – if Customs tests it and it is mislabelled, YOU will be held responsible.
- Consider your safety: cheap cosmetic products from china may contain very dangerous/toxic chemicals!! Safety standard are different from Australia, some tests may become optional, and there is only few way to verify its safety test! Medical masks may not have much protection as it said.
- You will get what you paid for – if its cheap, don't expect high quality, qualified QC or precise manufacturing, build quality or reliability.
- It is common for popular products to be 'cloned' by a different manufacturer at a lower price, often at a cost of lower quality. It is even common for clone products to be cloned! (e.g. SJ4000 action camera) Often these stores can be a good way to buy high-quality products designed for the China market, but cloning is rampant so be careful.
- Do not be fooled by the photos, description and certification, do your own research.
- Some are well-known stores others are not. Do your own research on internet and search the Ozbargain forums.
- Some are international stores targeted to export to many countries. Don't expect them to honour price errors or Australian consumer laws.
- If a product seems substantially cheaper than elsewhere ask – how yourself: could they have cut corners manufacturing this product? Will it perform to the same standard and am I happy to accept this if not?
Warranty and Faulty Products
- You can always ask for details, warranty and recommendation for better understanding before buying.
- Being polite and patient in communication is the best way to get help and support from these businesses.
- Never threaten, or get abusive or rude – the person you are dealing for support with has nothing to do with the quality of the product.
- Send a photo of the issue to the seller.
- For lower value items, typically the seller will issue a refund or ship a replacement to you.
- For higher-value items, you will be responsible for return postage costs – this can be costly so consider warranty costs before purchasing.
- Generally warranty service can be difficult to obtain beyond 6 months after purchase, the policies vary from seller to seller.
Discussing these sites
If you would like to share your experience on any of the sites feel free to head to the forums. Some threads already exist on cheap chinese buying sites such as this one.