China’s Alibaba has been hitting headlines for launching publicly in the US. One of Alibaba’s main businesses is called Taobao, a super-hybrid between Amazon and eBay – and it is glorious.  It’s where my mother buys imported dog food for our pet poodle, it’s where I buy designer boots straight from the manufacturer…in fact, my family (they live in Shanghai) receives an average of 4-5 packages from Taobao shopping a week. My Aunt and Uncle run a Taobao store, and sell Thermos products from out of their garage. They started their business a few months ago, and are already selling hundreds of Thermos mugs a week.

Here are a few reasons why Taobao is amazing:

• It literally has everything. 
  Every single product that exists under the sun can be found on this thing. It sells everything from authentic and fake Rolexes to seafood to human cadavers.
  

  First page of first results for “Celine”

• Prices are generally very low.
  Lots of wholesalers and manufacturers sell products straight to the consumer from their factories, thereby cutting out all the costs of renting and running a storefront.
  

  The price of the first mouse on the list (19CNY) is just over $3 Canadian.

• It’s user friendly.
  Alibaba has two other offerings that integrate seamlessly into Taobao:
  1. AliWangWang, a built-in instant messaging system that connects consumers with the owners and service reps of each store to discuss any and all questions they may have at any time.
  

  Each blue icon is an online customer service rep. There are categories for pre-sale, post-sale, and complaints.

  2. AliPay, a service similar to Paypal..but way better. It allows users to make e-commerce and brick-and-mortar payments, wire money to friends domestically and internationally, pay for bills, invest in stocks..and it all fits into one app.

• It’s ridiculously fast.
  The Chinese courier system is efficient. Most shipping we have here in Canada takes 7-10 business days. Packages in China take anywhere from a few hours to 3 days to arrive, depending on how far the sender is. The cost? If it isn’t free, then it will probably cost less than $5.

If I could only shop in one place for the rest of my life, Taobao would win hands down. It will be very interesting to see how Taobao will grow in the future – my hope is that it expands to North America, and that North America ups it’s shipping game to keep up.