A shopping agent exists because the sellers worth buying from do not ship outside China and do not take your card. The agent does both for you: they buy the item in China with their own money, receive it at their warehouse, hold it until you are ready, then send it to you as one parcel. Kakobuy is one of several; the flow below is theirs, but the shape of it is the same everywhere.
The eight steps
- 1
Make an account
An email address and a password. You do not pay anything to register, and you can look at the whole site without one — but the cart, the warehouse and the QC photos all live behind the login, so do it before you find something you want rather than after.
- 2
Get the item in front of Kakobuy
Two ways. Either you open a link that already points at the item inside Kakobuy — every find on this site does — or you paste a Taobao, Weidian or 1688 URL into Kakobuy's own converter and it opens the same page. The converted page is the seller's listing, rendered inside Kakobuy, with the options translated.
- 3
Pick the size and colour, then add to cart
The options come from the seller, not from Kakobuy, so the names can be literal translations. If a colourway is listed twice at different prices, that is usually two different qualities of the same thing. Check the find's photos against the option you are picking before you commit.
- 4
Pay for the item
This first payment covers the item and the seller's domestic shipping to Kakobuy's warehouse. It is not the shipping to you — that comes later and separately, and it is usually the larger number of the two.
- 5
Wait for it to arrive at the warehouse
The seller ships it to Kakobuy. How long depends entirely on the seller; some dispatch the same day, some sit on an order for a week. Your parcel appears in your Kakobuy warehouse when it lands.
- 6
Look at the QC photos
Once it is in the warehouse, Kakobuy photographs the item and the photos appear against it. This is your one look before it leaves China, so take it seriously — there is a separate guide to what to look for, by category.
- 7
Submit the parcel and choose a line
When you have everything you want, you submit the items as one parcel. Kakobuy weighs and measures it, then quotes you every shipping line available for your country. You pick one and pay the freight.
- 8
Wait, and then take the customs part seriously
The parcel ships, you get tracking, and at some point it enters your country's customs. Whether you are charged duty and how much is between you and your own customs authority, not something the agent decides.
The three mistakes everyone makes once
Shipping a single light item
Freight is priced by weight with a floor, so one t-shirt costs nearly what three do. If you are only ever going to buy one thing, factor the shipping in before you decide the item is cheap. The shipping guide covers how the weight is actually calculated, including the volumetric rule that catches people out on coats and shoeboxes.
Skipping the QC photos
They are the only moment the item is in a place where something can still be done about it. Once it is on a plane, a flaw is your problem. What to look at changes by category — the thing that gives away a bad pair of shoes is not the thing that gives away a bad jacket.
Guessing at the fees
Every number is shown in the cart before you confirm, and people still budget for the item alone and get surprised at the second payment. Every line, in order.
Before you register
Registration is free either way, but if you use a referral link you start with the coupon attached to the account instead of discovering it afterwards and being unable to apply it. Ours is here and we are paid a commission if you use it — see the coupon page for what it is worth and the footer for the full disclosure.
Questions
Do I pay once or twice?
Twice, at a minimum. Once for the item when you order it, and once for the international shipping when your parcel is ready to leave. Optional extras — extra photos, removing the shoebox, repacking — are added to one or the other.
Can I add things to the same parcel over several weeks?
Yes, that is the whole point of the warehouse, and it is what makes a haul cheaper per item than buying one thing at a time. Items are stored free for a period and then begin accruing a storage fee, so do not leave something sitting there for months.
What if the seller sends the wrong thing?
You will usually see it in the QC photos before it ships, which is why they matter. Raise it with Kakobuy's support from inside the order; they are the ones who dealt with the seller, and they are the only party who can.
Can I cancel after paying for the item?
Before the seller dispatches it, usually yes, and the money goes back to your Kakobuy balance rather than your card. After it reaches the warehouse it becomes a return, which means paying to send it back inside China — rarely worth it on a cheap item.
Do I need to speak Chinese?
No. The interface and the support are in English. The one place Chinese leaks through is the seller's own option names, which are machine-translated and sometimes read oddly.