If you haven’t discovered the joys of Baopals you just have to try it. Now there is no excuse for bothering your Chinese friends to help you shop on Taobao/Tmall as Baopals has ‘unlocked the gates to the world’s largest online marketplace, with over 800 million products to choose from.
今天主要向大家推荐一个适合老外购物的神器Baopals，如果你身边有老外正因为看不懂购物网站上的信息而苦恼的话，正好把这篇文章推荐给Ta吧！Baopals就像是我们用的淘宝，上面有数以千计的产品可供选择，不同的是它都是英文显示，专门为老外准备。有了Baopals，Ta再也不用来麻烦你帮忙在淘宝或是天猫上下单啦！自己想逛就逛，想买就买！
不过有一点Ta还需要你的帮助，那就是要帮助Ta开通微信支付或Alipay。
Furthermore, everything is in English, finding the products you want is a pretty easy, and despite a few grumbles on my part (like having to sign in each time you open their app/Wechat account - it has totally transformed my shopping experience in China.
I started using Baopals during the summer and here is a summary of what I have found it useful for;
Food: Living in a 3rd tier city can somewhat limit the choices we have when we want to get our hands on international products. My kitchen has never been more fully stocked with condiments such as mustards, pasta sauces & salad dressings with a bundle load of seasonings & spices too.
Household appliances: I picked up a George Foreman Grilling Machine for RMB450 and a steamer iron for 120RMB. I love my George Foreman however, the steamer iron has been used a handful of times (it looks awesome when I see people using it in Zara but it’s useless on my shirts).
Alcohol: With Christmas approaching stock up your bar with a wonderful selection of drinks. I’ve seen bottles of Australian Yellowtail wine on sale in Auchan for 125RMB, on Baopals I’ve seen it for 39RMB (I purchased it too and it’s the real thing…not fake!)
Footwear: It can be hard finding western sizes here in the Middle Kingdom but Baopals has made life much easier. I bought a pair of football boots size 46 but I’ve seen sizes 47/48. Still haven’t used them yet however.
Now here’s how it works. It’s pretty simple as long as you set up your Wechat pay account or Alipay account (you might need to go to your bank with your passport if you are having difficulty linking your Wechat account to your bank account but trust me it’s worth the hassle).
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STEP 1
Search for Baopals in your Wechat ‘search official accounts’ section. Then follow the Baopals account and enter their official account. It’s that easy. Then search for products in your language of choice, or browse Baopals’ departments to find virtually anything you need at the best prices imaginable.
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STEP 2
Choose what you want and follow the purchasing instructions (buy now, payment, check out type of thing).
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STEP 3
Now here is the slightly tricky part for us foreigners. Baopals does give you a choice between direct delivery or convenient pickup. For direct delivery, I would suggest you add a Chinese speaker’s phone number to your delivery address as when the delivery guy comes he will be ringing them to coordinate collection. Otherwise, select a ‘convenient pickup’ point such as your Chinese friend’s house our your office.
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STEP 4
Seemingly just by signing up, Baopals will give you 25 RMB off your first Baopals order. I’m not 100% sure if they are still offering this deal.
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STEP 5
Payment part! Follow the steps as directed. All in English of course!
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STEP 6
You can also track your order but I’ve never bothered with this part are I have never been waiting more than 2-3 days for the delivery (sometimes only 1 day).
We’d love to hear your stories of online shopping or indeed Baopals. Leave a message at the bottom of this article for our readers to learn about your experiences.
Happy shopping from Changzhou’s DragonCity.