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Taobao agent · Singapore

A Taobao agent for companies, not for parcels

Onevendor buys from Taobao on behalf of Singapore businesses. We pay the seller, consolidate and import the shipment, deliver to your premises, and invoice your company in Singapore dollars as a local vendor.

Most Taobao agents serving Singapore are built for individuals. You top up a wallet, paste a link, and a parcel turns up at your block. That is a good service for a personal purchase and a poor one for a company, because a company does not only need the goods. It needs a document trail its own finance process can accept.

That is the gap we fill. The sourcing work is the same: read the listing in Chinese, talk to the seller, agree the price, get it shipped. What changes is the commercial shape of the deal. We buy the goods in our own name and sell them on to you, so you are buying from one Singapore company rather than from fifty shops you have never heard of.

What changes when the buyer is a business

How an order runs

1. You send links or a description

Taobao links with quantities and the date you need them, or Pinduoduo links if that is where you found it. If you do not have a link, send a photograph, a specification or a sample, and we will find suppliers and come back with options.

2. We quote in Singapore dollars

One quotation covering the goods, freight, consolidation, import charges and our fee, each on its own line. Quotations are valid for 14 days. If a seller moves their price before we place the order, we tell you and confirm the new figure before going ahead.

3. We buy, ship, deliver and invoice

We pay the seller in RMB, consolidate what may be several sellers into a single shipment, handle the import, deliver to your address in business hours, and issue the invoice. You pay once, in SGD.

What it costs

Our service fee is 10% of the value of the goods, or 15% where the supplier makes or alters the item to your specification. The first two suppliers on an order are included and each additional supplier is S$10; the minimum fee per order is S$30. Goods are charged at the seller's price converted to Singapore dollars at the rate we obtain when we pay them. Freight, consolidation and import charges are passed on at cost. Because we are not GST-registered, no GST is added to our fee.

Import charges are worth understanding before you approve anything, and we have written them up separately in importing from China to Singapore.

When Taobao is the wrong platform

Taobao is a retail marketplace. If you are buying twenty of something, it is usually the right place to look. Above that, the same goods are often materially cheaper on 1688, the wholesale side of the same group, where you are closer to the factory. We buy from both, and we will tell you which one your order belongs on rather than quietly quoting the more expensive one. See 1688 sourcing for Singapore companies.

Questions we get asked

What is a Taobao agent?

A Taobao agent buys items on Taobao for someone who cannot buy there themselves, then forwards them on. Most agents serving Singapore are consumer services: they move a parcel from a Chinese warehouse to your home address. Onevendor works differently. We buy in our own name as a Singapore company, import the goods, deliver them to your office and invoice your company in Singapore dollars, so the transaction sits in your accounts as a purchase from a local vendor.

Can my company buy from Taobao directly?

Nothing stops you, but three things usually go wrong. Taobao sellers generally do not ship to Singapore, so you need a forwarder. Payment normally needs a Chinese payment method or a personal card billed in RMB. And the paperwork you are left with is a Chinese-language listing and a card statement, which is difficult to raise a purchase order against or to explain at audit.

Do you give a proper invoice?

Yes. A Singapore invoice in SGD from YOUTHSTYLE PTE. LTD., UEN 202314897K, with our service fee shown as its own line. We are not currently GST-registered, so no GST is charged and the document is an invoice rather than a GST tax invoice. In Singapore only GST-registered businesses may issue tax invoices.

How much does a Taobao agent in Singapore cost?

Agent fees in this market generally run between 5% and 10% of the goods value, charged on top of the goods and the freight. Onevendor charges 10%, or 15% on goods made to your specification, with the first two suppliers included and S$10 for each additional supplier, a minimum of S$30 per order, and passes goods, freight, consolidation and import charges through at cost, each on its own line so you can see exactly what you are approving.

Can you check an item before it ships?

We work from the seller's listing or their written confirmation of the specification, and we raise anything that looks inconsistent before you approve the quotation. If an order needs the goods opened and checked at the warehouse, tell us at enquiry stage and we will price that in.

What will you not source?

Counterfeit or trademark-infringing goods, anything illegal to import into Singapore, and anything that needs an import permit we do not hold. We will tell you promptly if we have to decline an order.

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