Online Shopping - DIY

HOW TO DO SHOPPING ONLINE & MAKE YOUR LIFE MUCH EASIER

In this topic we talk about the ways to do online shopping in China. Follow the steps and you would be just fine :).

Step 1:

What you need first is basically an E-Banking account. I’m much femiliar with China Construction Bank so I’m gonna tell you people about it. So here we go, First go to your nearest China Construction Bank with your passport and some money, ask them to open an account for you. As soon as they finish with the account making procedure let them know that you are interested in “e-Banking”. They would let you know that it would cost 35 RMB more to enable e-Banking on your account. (Don’t worry that 35 RMB is the cost of a security USB key which they would deliver you). As soon as that process finish tell them you need to activate this USB. The bank representative will put that usb into a computer (internet connected) at the bank and walk you through the process of setting up your passwords and username. (most of the time your username would be your Passport Number). After this relax and come home.

Step 2:

Now that you have the e-Banking enabled account and security key you can get started with the process. Go to AliPay website. [ http://www.alipay.com ] (支付宝) – Zhi Fu Bao. There you create a new account remember to use the same account name as your bank account. For Example.

Bank Account Name : Steven Smith
your Alipay Name should be : Steven Smith

This is for the reason of Alipay verification and certification process. After that process apply for the certification of your account. In this certification AliPay will ask your Account Name at the Bank, your Passport Copy (Digital) which you can upload (less then 1 MB) your Account Number, Bank Name etc. After entering this information hit next it would ask you to certify your information from a Chinese Friend who can write information on a piece of paper sign it and also enter his/her Dalian Govt. ID Card number. After that hit next. Your information is sent to Alipay for Account Processing and Certification.

In 24 – 48 Hours Alipay will confirm your account from the Bank check if your name matches, if all the above mentioned information is correct and corrosponds to your China Construction Bank Account Information then AliPay will enable certification to your AliPay account. This will enable you to send / receive / withdraw & deposit cash into your online AliPay account which later on you can use to buy stuff online.

Step 3:

After this comes the Shopping part. Go to any of your favourite website like TaoBao (淘宝) [ http://www.taobao.com ] China’s biggest online shopping website. Create an account there follow the procedure and when it asks your AliPay account then add the email address which you use as a login to your AliPay website. When you are done you have attached your Taobao Account to your AliPay account which is connected with your bank.

Why we did that ? why can’t we just connect Taobao Directly to Bank ?

Well first of all you can’t connect Taobao to bank directly, second – that AliPay works as an escrow service it will protect your  transactions keep them on hold until your product gets delivered to you. By this way you won’t get mugged :P

Step 4: 

Now comes the fun part. SHOPPING yaayyy ! Anyone interested ! :P

Go to Taobao login via your account information and search anything from the Search Bar on top. When you find your desiered product check for following things:

Buyer Protection / 7 Days Product Return Certification / Primium Seller (has sold these products before) / If you are buying used product it should have 30 days return & repair etc.

These won’t be written there but will be in ICONS next to the products.

Once you are satisfied click on order button type your address, select your shipping methods (EMS / Surface / Air etc.) check if you want product information to be annonyomous (like buying health products / adult products etc) and click pay. It would take you to your connected AliPay account there you have to select the payment method, click on your bank icon and select pay it would take you to your bank account website (in case of China Construction Bank it would take you to https://www.ccb.com ) where enter your bank username (Passport Number) and password. As you login you would find the recipt and the amount of money you have to pay. Click on pay at this time your USB should be attached to your computer. A box will pop-up asking your usb key password which you will have to put in as you click ok your money will be deducted and put in AliPay’s escrow account which then delivered to the seller at the time when you will receive the product.

Step 5:

As you receive the product in the next 3 days check the integrity of the product after that login to your TaoBao account and go to your trade page which will be at [http://trade.taobao.com/trade/itemlist/list_bought_items.htm ] on which there will be a dark blue color button asking you to confirm the escrow payment you click on that and it would take you to another page of taobao providing you the detail of the product and on the bottom a password space for your alipay account password. As you will enter the password and press pay it would pop-up a dialogue box asking you are you sure you want to release the escrow payment you click OK. And done :) … there you have your first online shopping.

Hope this article has helped you out for your next big adventure :)

Related Websites :
China Construction Bank [ http://www.ccb.com ]
AliPay [ http://www.alipay.com ]
TaoBao [ http://www.taobao.com ]
360buy [ http://www.360buy.com ]
Amazon China [ http://www.amazon.cn   /   http://www.joyo.cn ]