A Sense of Urgency

Being the Supreme Taobao Expert that I am, I try to do all my shopping online. But sometimes I just need a product right away. Maybe a new duffel bag for my trip tomorrow, or some blueberries for my pancakes in the morning.

In the past, this meant some urgent negotiation with the Taobao seller to see how fast he could ship and how confident he was in his kuaidi service. Or, I did the unthinkable and bought from an actual store.

Hearing my silent cries for help, Taobao has rolled out a new initiative that removes the negotiation and guarantees that speedy JIT delivery.

• Order before noon, get it by 7:00PM
• Order before 5:30PM, and get it by noon the following day
• Shipping costs will be below 6rmb, unless you have ordered something heavy (~over 3kg)
• If the product is late, and you have already consumed your pancakes without the blueberries, simply tell the kuaidi guy to take it back (don’t sign for it), and fill out the easy refund form.

To find products that will be delivered the same day in Shanghai, just add the following keywords to any search:

Go ahead and click in now, and bookmark it for easy access later. Just add your own keywords to find the stuff you need. (Remember to add a space in between.)

This is a new program, and at the time of writing, there were 21,000 participating products. But if kuaidi can keep up with the speedy deliveries, I expect that this fast delivery guarantee will catch on to more products and more cities. Keep your fingers crossed, Beijing!

My family always used newspaper to wrap birthday gifts. No that’s not quite right. We were too cheap to subscribe to a newspaper. We used junk mail – grocery store circulars and The Penny Saver – to wrap birthday gifts. When I received a new Nintendo game (probably the most joyous moments I ever felt as a kid) the gift wrapping’s announcement of ground beef at $1.09 per pound always took just a little bit of the joy away. 

But unfortuantely, the gift wrapping is still handled by cheap people. Taobao Sellers will use anything and everything to package your products. When you order your new camera, you may get a little insight into what type of chicken bullion cubes the Seller uses. Too often on Taobao, that new-stuff excitement is mitigated by the shabby appearance of the outer packaging. 

Look forward to happiness, everybody! Now Taobao is offering these sweet packages to any Seller who is interested, free. Sellers can order up to 400 boxes in various sizes. They look great and deliver that fantastic Taobao brand magic. Don’t be surprised if you see these wrapping up your stuff in the near future. A sweet cherry on top of your    

We reported before about how Taobao was going to lay a major smackdown on kuaidi companies. Well this seems to be one more step in that direction, of adding some consistency into their value chain. These boxes will also now be conspicously visible on the backs of kuaidi bicycles across the nation, like a radioactive dye in China’s bloodstream.

News from Hexun

Taobao is responsible for so much kuaidi business, that it makes sense for them to throw their weight around to prevent similar holiday service stoppages in the future. The new standards may also force other compromises from kuaidi companies, such as providing delivery service for more remote areas and more flexible policies to allow recipients to thoroughly inspect goods before signing for them. From Sina (中文)