TaoBao - A 65Daigou Ship-For-Me Guide

In my third installment of reviews on independent Taobao freight forwarders, i will be reviewing the 65Daigou Ship-For-You sea freight service. According to their website, 65Daigou is one of the pioneer companies in Singapore providing specialized purchasing, logistics and international shipping services.

Note: 65Daigou is now known as Ezbuy.

They Buy The World For You... You Pay Of Course!

1) Register a 65Daigou Account

The first step is to create a 65Daigou account. Simply click "Register" and proceed to fill up the email address, password and user id field.

2) Add Your Unique PRC Address to Taobao

When you create your 65Daigou 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. Do note that you will be given a Guangzhou and Shanghai address. These are two different warehouses that belongs to 65Daigou, choose either one and make sure you send your Taobao purchases to the correct warehouse.

For my purchases, i choose to use the Guangzhou warehouse. This is because alot of the Taobao sellers i buy from are based in Guangzhou as well. 

* Please refer to this link to setup the address in Taobao

Your Shanghai and Guangzhou Address

3) 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 selected 65Daigou warehouse in either Shanghai or Guangzhou.

4) Submit an Order

Once your orders have been placed, sit back and wait for the seller(s) to post. When you have been notified that an item has been sent, login to 65Daigou, click on "Ship-For-Me" -> "Forwarding Orders" -> "Submit New Order". 

Here, you can specify the warehouse that should be expecting your goods. Additionally, you can add courier company and tracking number. This information will be used by 65Daigou to facilitate a smooth receipt of your packages.

Submit an Order

5) Declare the Value 

When all purchases have arrived at the designated warehouse, make a declaration of the value of each package. This is for the purpose of GST* and insurance calculations. 

Based on my experience, there was a slight delay between arrival of goods at warehouse and updates on the website. My purchased had been received on a Saturday morning. However, it was only updated on the 65Daigou on a monday.

*Do note that if the total value of your package(s) is more than $400 SGD, you will be required by law to pay 7% GST.

6) Self Collect or Arrange Delivery 

65Daigou gives you the option to select self-collection or home delivery. The self-collection can be made at any one the following self-collection points in Singapore. 

For the purpose of my review, i have selected the Home Delivery option. This will incurr an additional charge - in my case, it costs me S$8.00.

Delivery Rates:
Flat rate S$5 - for parcels with a total weight less than 8KG

Flat rate S$8 - for parcels with a total weight equal to or more than 8KG

Deliver or Self-Collect

- Insurance (Optional): The charge is 3% of the declared value of the goods and international shipping fee. If the parcel is lost, you will be 100% compensated, capped at S$2000.

7) Pay for Shipment to Singapore 

The Rates for the Ship-For-You service is as follows:

$1.70 per 500g (For first 0-30KG). That comes up to $3.40 per 1KG.

So a rough estimate of a 10KG* consolidated package would cost $34. 

*Do note that the quoted rates are rounded up to the nearest 500g. i.e, 10.2 KG would be rounded up to 10.5 KG and you would be charged $35.7.

Rates (As at 05-FEB-15)

There are several options for payment:

• Bank Transfer or ATM Transfer
• Credit Card
• Pay Pal (This method is no longer accepted)

For Bank and ATM Transfers, do remember to put the "65daigou XXX" (Whereby XXX is your account name). This will facilitate their the payment processing.

For Credit Card top-ups, there will be an additional 3% charge incurred. 

Once you have paid using any of the methods above, the amount will go into the "My Prepay Available Amount" as available credit. Simply select your entry in the "Unpaid Payment" section and click "Pay".

After selecting the shipment for payment, there will be a generated bill available for downloading. 65Daigou will also proceed to pack and ship your order to Singapore !.

8) Delivery

When your packages finally arrive in Singapore, 65Daigou will have them delivered to your home address. (This is also the address that was specified during check-out in point 6).

Hope you enjoyed the review and guide! Happy Shopping! :)

Pros: 
- Easy to use web interface
- Occasional discounts on Shipping (15% - In my case)
- GST (7%) costs is only applicable for total value of goods more than $400SG.
- No Agent fees related to the "Ship-For-Me" service

Cons:
- Freight Rates are not very much cheaper than other freight forwarders
- Slight delay between arrival of goods at warehouse and updates on the website

- No checking or re-packing of goods

*Edited: Agent fees are only charged on the "Buy-For-Me" service of 65Daigou.