Group: 1) Placing an Order

In-house insurance can be purchased for my China, Japan, and Taiwan (Economy) shopping services. To insure your purchases against loss and damage, you will need to pay a small percentage of the value of your purchases.

However, it’s important to note that insurance has certain limitations:

• Claims for lost packages can only be made if the tracking status shows them as unknown or missing, which can take several months from the time of shipping. You cannot make a claim simply because the package is late or stuck at a certain status for a long time.
• If you need to make a claim for damage, you will be asked to provide video evidence of the damage before you opened the package.
• It can be challenging to make claims for damaged packages, as postal services often shift the blame onto others due to the multiple hands involved in the delivery process.
• If weather conditions are suspected to be the cause of parcel damage, the postal service will most likely not entertain claim requests.
• Fragile and breakable items are not covered by insurance.

If you still wish to purchase insurance, please let me know when you place your order so that I can make the necessary arrangements.

Xianyu:

Taobao:

Custom sizes for clothing

If you’re getting your clothing custom-sized, the basic info required by most sellers is as follows:
Height, bust, waist, hips, shoulder width, biological gender.
Provide all measurements in cm.

Sellers may specify the measurements they need, so please follow that as much as possible.

Feel free to use your good judgement and common sense to provide additional information. If the outfit has sleeves, then provide your desired sleeve length. If it’s a top and a skirt, then provide your preferred length of top and length of skirt. If you often find sleeves tight on your arm, you might wish to provide the circumference of your upper arm. And so forth. There is no guarantee that the tailor will use all the measurements that they did not ask for, but if they notice that the clothing may not fit at certain parts, they can inform us.

On the other hand, do not over-complicate measurements. For example, if it’s a simple pair of pants, don’t split it up into parts and provide thigh length, length of calf and whatnot. No tailor will go to that extent to make it so exact to your body unless it’s your personal tailor. Pants length will do. That said, please understand that it is not quite possible to get a 100% exact fit when you have your clothing custom-made online by someone who hasn’t seen you in person. If you’re particular about the fit, you may have to be prepared to have a local tailor adjust your outfit.

For measurement of body parts, do provide your actual body measurements. The tailor will translate this to garment measurements accordingly so you do not have to incorporate a buffer.

Custom sizes for shoes

For boots, you generally need to provide: Physical gender, Chinese shoe size, boot height, circumference of opening in cm. For shoes with no extension beyond the ankle, you’d just need to provide your Chinese shoe size.

 

Standard sizes for Clothing

Standard sizes i.e. S, M, L, XL and One-size only pieces differ for different stores and even different items from the same store. Never assume that just because you usually wear a certain size back home, the same size from the Taobao store will fit you. Size is just a label on Taobao.

The good thing is, the measurements of each size and item will usually be stated in the item’s description in cm. Online translations tend to do a decent job with translating them, but if the seller uses images for the size chart, the translator can’t pick it up, so knowing what the relevant terms are will be helpful. Here are some common ones:

身高： Height
肩宽/肩寬： Shoulder width
胸围/胸圍： Bust
腰围/腰圍： Waist
臀围/臀圍： Hips

衣长/衣長： Length of whole outfit / Length of top
裤长/褲長： Length of pants
裙长/裙長： Length of skirt, may sometimes refer to length of a whole dress too
袖长/袖長： Length of sleeve

男： Male size
女： Female size

All sizes are in cm. Measurements are usually taken by hand and are not 100% accurate. Please allow some room for error.

You should thus find out your own measurements in cm first in order to choose the most fitting size. There are lots of guides on taking your own measurements which apply internationally, so I won’t go into that. If you really need help, feel free to ask.

Standard sizes for shoes

Shoes on Taobao generally take on Chinese sizes, which are very similar to European size, but usually about 0.5 larger. To get an accurate Chinese size for your feet, you will need to measure the length of your sole.

The upper row indicates the Chinese shoe size while the lower row indicates the corresponding length of sole in mm.

However, if the width of your feet tends to give you issues (e.g. if you have wide feet or bunions), you may wish to provide the width of your feet as well so I can check it out on Taobao’s feet size calculator. They have a very good one here but unfortunately you need to be logged in to see it.

Here’s a simple guide to measuring your foot length and width: http://www.wikihow.com/Find-Your-Shoe-Size
Do work with cm/mm instead of inches.

Most of us have one foot slightly larger than the other. Make sure you provide the size of your larger foot unless you don’t mind it being pinched throughout the day.

Some shoes may run large or small. This information may be available in the seller’s description, or in the customers’ reviews.

Here are some useful terms that may show up in the item name:

定金 / ding金：Downpayment (usually for a pre-order). Usually the listed price will be significantly lower than the actual price.

预定：Preorder

尾款 / 尾kuan: Remainder payment of a previous pre-order. You can’t purchase it if you did not participate in said preorder.

定做 / 定制: Make to order

现货：In stock

无现货: No available stock (in other words, it must be pre-ordered)

If you’re not sure, just ask me or send your order and I’ll advise you accordingly.

Yes. However, please keep in mind that for split-payment listings or pre-orders that require a down payment to be confirmed and released in advance to the seller, these pre-orders are non-refundable. Additionally, if the release date is delayed, this would not be grounds for cancellation or a refund.

Please note that I do not handle pre-orders that require me to join a messenger group and monitor it for updates and payment requests. These types of orders are typically run by fans who are not professional sellers, and often take months to fulfill as they only start after achieving a minimum number of orders. They may also be sidelined by manufacturers for more mainstream orders. Due to the complexity and effort involved, I regret to inform you that I cannot accept such orders. Instead, I suggest customers look for the final product on Xianyu. There are usually some available as people lose interest in the product or fandom by the time the product is released.

I understand that you may have concerns about the safety of your personal information. Rest assured that I take your privacy seriously and will only share your information with the relevant parties involved in processing your order and shipment.

Order-specific information, such as body measurements, will only be shared with the seller to ensure that you receive the correct product. Shipping information will be shared with the postal service/courier and logistics agent responsible for handling your package.

Apart from these necessary disclosures, I will not share your personal information with anyone else. I respect your privacy and will take all necessary measures to ensure that your information is kept secure and confidential.

Yes. There are two ways we can approach this:

1. I will handle all orders, payments, and communication with a single group order leader.
2. I will treat each member’s order as separate, with payment and orders communicated individually. For shipping arrangements, one person will handle payment for all shipping fees. The downside of this method is that even if multiple members are ordering items from the same seller, you won’t be able to benefit from associated discounts or bulk purchases.

• I can help you to search for specific items, but I will require photos/pictures, or as much relevant information as you can provide.
• I can advise you on some keywords that you can use to do your search.
• Tip: Taobao has a function that allows you to search by uploading a photo.
• I have a Xianyu account and, depending on the nature of the product that you’re looking for, I can help you to make want-to-buy listings for free.
• Please use the Price Quote Request / Contact Form to get in touch.