For this section, we are going to use a different item to demostrate how to consolidate items when they arrive at the shipping warehouse in China, ready to be shipped to your address.
Once you have successfully paid for an item, the item will appear as paid in your account. When the seller has not sent out your item, it will appear in this Not Yet Sent tab, as shown in the picture below.
When the seller has sent out your item, and the item is en-route to the shipping warehouse, it will appear as shown in the picture below. The tab at which you can find your item is also changed, as shown in the picture below.
You can check on the delivery status of your item by clicking on the button here.
When your item has arrived at the warehouse, you would receive an SMS similar to this, depending on your shipping vendor. The SMS is to inform you that your item has arrived at the shipping warehouse and is ready for consolidation. This is an automated system SMS, please do not reply to it.
You will also receive notification of your item reaching the shipping warehouse in the Taobao App. You can tap on the button to see your notifications, as shown in the picture below.
After tapping on the notifications button, you will be brought to this screen. Tap on the blue van button as shown below to see the notification that your item has arrived at the shipping warehouse.
You can see the status of your items here. Tapping on any items already shipped to the warehouse, as shown below, takes you to the shipping vendor to consolidate items for shipping.
Tap your overseas Shipping Vendor to access all your items in the shipping warehouse ready for shipping to your address. There are 3 methods to access your shipping vendor screen for consolidating of items. The first method is by tapping on the items' status screen. The second method will be shown later. Your shipping vendor screen would change depending on which shipping vendor you selected.
Method 2 to access shipping vendor screen:
Tap on the "My Account" button as shown below to access your account details screen.
Tap on the "Unconfirmed Delivery" button on items that have arrived at the shipping warehouse will take you to the shipping vendor page, as shown below in the picture.
Method 3 to access shipping vendor screen:
Tap on the "Shipping Command Center" button, which looks like a green form, as shown below to access your account details screen. Note: In newer version of the app, it says 物流中心, but the picture remains the same.
Tap on the "Awaiting Consolidated Shipping" button, as shown below.
Once you have tapped on the shipping vendor button in step 2, you will be taken to this screen where you can choose which items to consolidate into a single package for shipping to your address. If you have ordered more than one item, and they have all arrived at the shipping warehouse, they will be shown here as well. Items which have not arrived at the shipping warehouse will be greyed out. You can choose to wait for all your items to arrive to consolidate them, or choose different groups of items to ship out.
The shipping warehouse will store your items up to 20 days to allow you to wait for all your items to arrive for consolidation. When the 20 days limit is up, the shipping vendor will charge you 1 to 2 Yuan per item every day to continue storing your item. If you do not ship your items after 50 days(20 days free storage + 30 days overdue storage), the shipping warehouse will discard your items. Be sure to ship out your items before then! The number as indicated in the picture below shows you how many days your item has free storage left at the shipping warehouse.
Choose each item you want to consolidate into a single package by tapping on the circle to the left of the item. An item will indicate that it is selected by displaying a checked sign. The bar below will indicate the number of items selected, the total weight of the package based of the items selected when consolidated, and cost of shipping and delivery of the package to your address.
Once you have decided how many items to ship as a single package, tap on the "Calculate Delivery Fee" button, as shown below, to get the cost of delivery to your address.
Depending on the shipping vendor and the availability of self pickup of your location, more than one option, as shown below, may be available. If there is only one option available, it is usually delivery to your doorstep at the address you provided. The second option, as shown in the picture below, is delivery to a collection point near your area. You can choose your delivery option by checking on the circle, as shown below.
When you have selected your shipping destination, a button to confirm the transaction will appear. Tap the button as shown in the picture below to confirm that you want to ship the items, and that you want to proceed to payment of the shipping fee.
Enter the 3 security digits at the back of your card you registered in Alipay to confirm the transaction.
Once you have paid the shipping fee to the vendor, you just have to sit back and wait for the item to be delivered!
Below are some common problems for shipping, and how to solve them.
1. You might encounter an error with your postal code when choosing your shipping address. Change the default "000000", or what is shown on your screen, to your postal code by clicking on the button next to the error message.
2. If you buy an item that cannot be shipped, the shipping warehouse will reject the item and send it back to the seller. You will need to contact the seller to get a refund. Sample chat lines in chinese that can help you contact the seller to get a refund can be found here. Below is an example of a prohibited item arriving at the shipping warehouse, and the shipping warehouse refuse to accept the item. A list of prohibited items can be found here.
Below is an example of an item that cannot be shipped by air when it has reached the shipping warehouse for air shipping. This example, a magnet, shown in the picture below, requires sea shipping. Sample chat lines in chinese that can help you contact the seller to get a refund can be found here. A list of sea-shipping only items can be found here.
