Twenty-four-hour Taobao – A Self Experiment

I admit it! I am not a huge fan of online shopping. Back home in Germany, my sole forays into online shopping consisted of ordering a few new books on Amazon and some old ones on eBay. But buying clothes online without trying them on? Never. Or groceries? No way.

But, having lived in China since 2011, the daily armada I witness of express parcel-carriers delivering online shopping items reminds me that I am somehow “different” when it comes to online-shopping. A day without buying anything online seems unlikely, if not impossible, in China, and the thrill of daily digital shopping can start as early as the morning subway commute to work.

Taobao is a name more or less synonymous with the virtual shopping universe on the Chinese web. China’s biggest C2C shopping platform and pioneer, Taobao.com has everything you might possibly imagine, or so Chinese friends tell me. Its patrons hence refer to the platform as “almighty Taobao.”

I, however, remain unconvinced. So what do you buy on this “Taobao,” I want to know. A list promptly ensues: clothes, electrical and electronic devices, cosmetics, eatables, pregnancy products, pharmaceuticals, household items, flowers, frozen food, visa services, imported products… Okay, I get the picture.

But I have a trump card: “What about shoes?” I ask triumphantly. “What if they don’t fit?” My Chinese friend smiles knowingly as she takes out her smart phone and shows me the list on it of her personal measurements: shoulder width, length of arms and legs, the three vital statistics of bust, waist, and hips – all precisely noted. You need only compare this online-shopping “fingerprint” with the description of the product you are interested in and the job is done, she explains. And, if the worst comes to the worst, she adds, there is always the Taobao chat program “Wang Wang,” whereby a buyer can contact the Taobao seller within seconds and clarify any remaining questions. I see.

I wonder what a day in the Taobao universe might look and feel like, and so take the bold decision to conduct a self-experiment: 24-hour Taobao! Let’s see what “Taobao Wang,” the “net to fish for treasures,” as it literally translates from the Chinese, has to offer in the hypothetical organization of an entire day, from breakfast till dinner, with Taobao as a companion. The bet is on!