TaoBao - Ship4U A PEEKA.SG Guide

Taobao Independent Freight Forwarding businesses have been sprouting all over the local scene during the past 3 years. With the increasing popularity of online shopping from Taobao, it is no wonder that as a consumer, we are often spoiled for choices. In fact, if you are like me, you would be more confused when trying to pick the right best freight forwarder!

Thus, I wanted to put together a guide to share some of my experience with an independent freight forwarder called Peeka (peeka.sg) - specifically the Ship4U service. Ship4U is the sea freight, shipping service of Peeka. Essentially, you will be given a unique address to consolidate your Taobao purchases. After all your purchases are received at the warehouse, you must declare its value, consolidate and pay for the shipping. According to their website, it takes approximately 2 weeks for shipping.

The main advantage of shipping, boils down to costs. Air freight for large and bulky items would usually cost a bomb. Although the down side of shipping is the delivery time taken from warehouse to your door-step. If you are willing to wait, sea freight is the way to go.

This guide assumes that you have created a Peeka account. Click (peeka.sg) if you have not already done so.

Note: Peeka has since moved to a new website (peeka.com.sg)

1) Add Your Unique PRC Address to Taobao

When you create a Peeka account, you will be given a PRC address. This address is unique to your account. It will also be the address that you need to setup in Taobao.

Your Own Address At PEEKA

Proceed to add this address to your Taobao account. In Taobao, Access "收货地址" to add an address. Fill in the details in the drop down list.

- 广东

- 深圳

- 宝安

- 新安

When correctly filled, it will automatically populate and display the map at the right side of your screen. 

Input (copy & paste) the remaining portion of your address and name. (Be careful not to get this wrong, as this information is critical for packages to arrive correctly to the Peeka warehouse).

How To Add the PEEKA Address in Taobao

2) Proceed to Purchase

Proceed to buy from Taobao. When checking out, remember to select the "New" address that you had created in Step 1. This is important as it will instruct the seller to send your purchases to the PEEKA warehouse in China that was uniquely allocated to you.

3) Package Declaration

When the Taobao seller has shipped your purchases, take note of the Delivery Tracking Number and add the package into PEEKA. This process informs PEEKA to expect a package with the specified waybill number. I guess the premise here is to avoid administrative lapses at the warehouse end.

Once the individual packages that are expected at your warehouse have been added and declared, wait for the items to arrive.

Declare Your Purchases

4) Package Arrival at PEEKA 

When your individual package arrives at PEEKA warehouse, you will be notified via email. You can proceed to consolidate your packages or wait till everything has arrived.

Email Notification

5) Consolidate and Pay

Once all your packages have arrived at PEEKA, you can proceed consolidate the order and pay. Do note that storage is free for 10 days. After which, there will be a storage charge levied on each package on a daily basis.

Consolidate Your Purchases

Check the items that you would like to consolidate and click "Ship Selected".

Pay using PayPal

Click "I Agree To the... SHIP4U Service". Pay via Paypal (Here you can use Paypal or Credit Cards).

When payment is completed, you will be given an order number and PEEKA will proceed to pack your items and send the package via sea freight.

*Do note that for PEEKA SHIP4U, you will incur 7% GST on your total declared value, regardless of whether the amount exceeds 400SGD$.

6) Delivery

When your packages finally arrive in Singapore, PEEKA will have them delivered to your home address. (This is also the address that was specified during check-out in point 5).

* Added:
The delivery was arranged 1 day after the packages arrived in Singapore. To my surprise, the delivery man arrived around 9pm. I felt it was a nice touch, as it meant someone was at home to receive the goods.

Pros: 
- Pretty straight forward interface
- Timely Email notifications
- Costs include local (SG) delivery to your doorstep

Cons:
- GST (7%) costs is included - regardless of whether your total declared value is less than 400SGD
- Freight Rates are not very much cheaper than other forwarders like 65Daigou

- No checking or re-packing of goods

I am also looking to do a review on another independent freight forwarder called 65Daigou. Meanwhile, do check out my other guide on the integrated Taobao Forwarder, 4PX (Popstation) here.

Image Credits: Google Image, Peeka.sg