Taobao buying agent for Singapore: we order, check and ship it

1Send us what you want to buy

2What a Taobao buying agent does

Chinese shopping apps are built for people living in China. The checkout wants a Chinese address and usually a Chinese payment account, and the seven-day return only helps someone who can send a parcel back from inside China. So from Singapore, someone in China has to buy for you. We place the order, pay the seller, take delivery at our hub, check it, and ship it to you with our freight service.

Buying wholesale stock on 1688, or from a factory? Those have their own guides: the 1688 buying agent service and our China sourcing and purchasing agent service, which also finds suppliers.

3Platforms we buy on

One shipment can hold orders from several of these at once. Send whatever link you have; for Xiaohongshu, a post is enough.

4Checking your order before the return window closes

Most sellers on these platforms offer a seven-day no-reason return (七天无理由退货). The seven days run from delivery, which for an order to Singapore means delivery at a warehouse in China. Sea freight then takes 10–14 days hub to door, so a box opened at home in Singapore has usually missed the window.

We open each order when it reaches our hub, look for damage and check that the right items have come. If something is broken or wrong, we take it up with the seller while the return still works: a replacement, an exchange or a refund, under the platform's rules. We don't confirm receipt on the platform until the check is done.

• Not every listing has the return. Made-to-order items, such as curtains cut to your size or a sofa in a fabric you chose, usually don't, and nor do some categories. The listing says so, and we point it out before buying.
• The check is what can be seen: damage to the item or its box, and the wrong item or the wrong number of them. We don't power up appliances or test how things work.
• Big pieces are checked too. A cracked table top found at our hub can still go back to the seller.

5From your link to your door

1. Send us the enquiry form, a WhatsApp to +65 8162 1037 or an email to info@empiricalmarine.com: the links or screenshots, with colour, size and quantity. No link? Describe the item, with a photo if you have one, and we look for it.
2. We reply with the full price: the goods, any delivery charge inside China, our fee and the freight. Nothing is bought until you say yes.
3. We order and pay the sellers, with our hub as the address and your marking code on every parcel.
4. The parcels come to our hub. We chase any shop that is slow to send, and check each parcel as it arrives.
5. When everything is in, it ships as one consignment, clears customs and comes to your door. The freight is paid when it reaches Singapore, before delivery, by PayNow or bank transfer.

Sea cargo goes through our Foshan hub, where it can wait 5 days free for the slower shops. Air cargo goes through our Shenzhen warehouse. How orders from different shops become one shipment is in the Taobao consolidated shipping guide.

6What it costs

The freight is all-in, with no hidden fees: receiving, sea or air freight, the import permit, customs clearance and delivery to your address. Because sea freight has a 1 CBM minimum, charged at S$82, the service pays off on bigger buys. For a few small, light things, the platforms' own small-parcel shipping costs less. To see the volume of what you have in mind, put the packed sizes in below, or use the full CBM calculator.

7What the service suits

• Furnishing a home: a sofa, a bed, lights, curtains and storage from many shops, shipped together.
• Renovation materials such as tiles, taps and door handles, where a wrong finish or a cracked piece holds up the contractor.
• Brand goods from Tmall flagship stores or JD that are dearer, or not sold, in Singapore.
• Things seen on Douyin or Xiaohongshu that are hard to find anywhere else.

8Customs and GST

We lodge the import permit as a Registered Declaring Agent. The platform order record serves as the invoice when it shows the seller, the item, the quantity and the amount paid; a shipment with more than 5 different items also needs a packing list, and since we placed the orders, we draw it up. GST is 9% of the goods plus freight and insurance. An air shipment valued below S$400 pays none; sea shipments have no such allowance. The import GST calculator gives the figure, and the complete guide to shipping from China to Singapore covers the freight side.

Already ordered, and only need the shipping? Then you don't need us to buy: get an instant quote for the freight.