How to Create Your Online Retail Accounts in China

The just-passed Double Eleven in China (aka the single day in China) is just like the Black Friday in The State, it makes people shopping mania.
Chinese online retail websites are attractive for shoppers from all over the world for great variety and constantly updated product list. The costs of shipping in China is very cheap.

In this guide, we cover all the topics you need to know to start taking advantage of China’s online marketplaces.

Taobao

 It is the biggest online retails in China and for sure if you ask a Chinese where to buy things, 9 out of 10 will tell you “Go to Taobao!” This huge marketplace offers endless items to buy for insanely low prices.

And here comes the catch. Taobao is not in English. But believe us – this is not such a big problem as you might think. Please check our ultimate English guide how to shop on Taobao.com.

Step 1. Open www.taobao.com and select “免费注册” (join for free)

Remember, make sure you are on www.taobao.com, not world.taobao.com

Step 2. Confirm Taobao terms

Step 3. Add your phone number

Taobao requires phone number verification in order to open an account.

After providing your phone number, the system will send a 6 digits SMS code to verify.

Step 4. Fill out the information of your account

Reminder for setting password

1. 6 – 20 digits/characters

2. Letters, numbers, and punctuations ( except space) can be included

3. Need to be included at least 2 types of digits from above.

Step 5. Set your payment (Can be skipped)

After you have inputted your bank card number, then you can choose your ID’s type to “护照” which means “passport”. At this step, it will require you to provide the same Chinese phone number that you left while opening the bank account.

After this step, welcome to the world of Taobao!

Jingdong (JD)

More importantly, the majority of the items on the JD Mall can be paid for using the cash-on-delivery option, so there’s no need to enter any bank or credit card info.

Step 1. Go to www.jd.com and click the register button “免费注册”

Step 2. Confirm Jingdong terms

Step 3. Fill out the information of your account

And then we are done! Hurry and shop!

Yihaodian (YHD)

 It’s is a website that provides people with a platform to shop groceries online. In July 2015, Walmart acquired 100% ownership of Yihaodian.

Yihaodian has “virtual stores” that exhibit images of stocked grocery shelves on walls and other surfaces in urban public areas in China, which passersby can scan codes under the images with a mobile device to purchase corresponding groceries online.

Step 1. Go to www.yhd.com and click the register button “注册”

Step 2. Fill out the information of your account

Reminder for setting password

1. 4 – 20 digits/characters

2. Letters, numbers, and punctuations ( except space) can be included

3. Need to be included at least 2 types of digits from above.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.