Rebooted Taobao looks beyond China

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Hello readers,

The first time I bought clothes from Taobao was around 2010.

At the time, blogshops were the “in” place to get stylish clothing for cheap. But even the prices on blogshops – many of which sourced items from fashion capitals like Bangkok – were no match for the Chinese merchants on Taobao.

While navigating through product listings in Chinese on Taobao was not impossible, it was a pain – and so was manually converting prices from Chinese yuan to Singapore dollars for every item that caught your eye.

Delivery was long: It took over a week and had to be done through a dropshipper. I also had to pick up my orders from a central collection point in my housing estate.

It wasn’t the most seamless shopping experience, but it was novel. More importantly, since each item of clothing cost less than S$10 on average, it was worth the hassle.

Over a decade later, Taobao is finally addressing these pain points by launching an English app in close to a dozen Asian markets, among other initiatives. This is a sign that the platform is paying more attention to serving customers overseas, even the non-Chinese.

While its connection to Lazada helps it reach local customers, Taobao still has to contend with more established regional players like Shopee, which offers superior returns and after-sales support.

I haven’t shopped on Taobao in years, but I hear the quality of clothing is leaps and bounds from what it used to be. Perhaps it’s time to give it another shot?

— Melissa Goh, journalist at Tech in Asia

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