By Lee and verity
Updated 8-31-2023
Ah, Taobao. Some love it, some hate it, some are intimidated by it—and for good reason. It’s an entirely Chinese site that’s difficult to machine translate, whether on desktop or on the app, so trying to navigate through everything to find pretty lolita dresses can be daunting!
But this guide is here to make your life easier. This is a picture-by-picture guide for navigating through all the important beep boops and buttons on Taobao so you can fulfill all your lolita shopping needs, including translations of common terminology used by lolita taobao sellers.
Without further ado, let’s get going!
(This guide was reorganized for clearer reading, so some numbers on screenshots may not be in order.)
Translation Tools
Desktop
Auto-Translate Text
Chrome works pretty well to auto-translate text on the Taobao site… but not perfectly. This can help with reading item titles, colors, etc.
Dictionary
The Zhongwen: Chinese-English Dictionary Chrome extension is a great tooltip dictionary for Chinese, but probably unnecessary unless you already read some Chinese.
iOS
Auto-Translate Images
You can screenshot listings and use the Apple Translate tool. Note that Translate can’t always read text in decorative fonts, so this is more helpful for navigating Taobao itself than reading listing images. Open the image in Photos, tap the 
Dictionary
The Pleco app is recommended, but probably unnecessary unless you already read some Chinese.
Best English <-> Chinese Translator
Baidu Fanyi is the best tool for phrase translation between English and Chinese, or vice-versa; it is better than Google Translate or Apple Translate.
Taobao Listings
Whether or not you’re browsing on Taobao directly or viewing a listing on a Taobao agent’s site, much of the information about items listed on Taobao is usually on untranslated images in the body of an item listing. We’ll start by looking at an item on the Taobao desktop site and learn relevant vocabulary to help you navigate the listing.
Desktop Listing Header
14. 价格 – price of the product, in yuan. Sometimes you will see a special ‘淘宝价格’, which just means ‘Taobao price’, so it’s essentially the same thing. The price of the item is going to be the big bolded orange numbers regardless.
15. 尺码 – size
16. 颜色分类 – colorways
17. 数量 – amount
18. 立即购买 – instant buy. You’re probably not going to use this.
19. 加入购物车 – add to cart
20. 收藏宝贝 – save item. Useful if you want to go back to your account later to look at things you’ve saved.
Product Information
If you scroll down the listing a bit, you’re going to see product photos and images of item policies/sizing charts.
21. 宝贝样情 – product description
22. 评价 – customer ratings
23. 专享服务 – customer service. You can find customer service info regarding how to contact the store in this tab.
Item description
(Refer to the above image.) There are a couple of bits of useful information here. Not all item descriptions will have the same categories.
24. 品牌 – brand. Typically this is the brand of the store you’re buying from.
25. 颜色分类 – colorways
26. 出售状态 – sale status. 现货 – currently in stock, 预约 – preorder/reservation, 定金 – deposit, 尾款 – tail payment (what you pay after the deposit)
27. 尺码 – size options
28. 适用季节 – suitable weather for wearing this item. 春 – spring, 夏 – summer, 秋 – autumn, 冬 – winter, 四季 – all four seasons.
29. 全款 – full payment. This isn’t going to be the case with every listing, but I thought it’d be helpful to point out in this case. I’ll go over a common list of terms that sellers use on taobao lolita listings further below.
Some stores may also put 面料 – product material. This is important for lolita shopping especially, if you want a specific material blend.
Great! We’ve gone through the anatomy of a basic listing. Now, most lolita items in stock are going to have images in the product description with a size chart and payment information (and often with notoriously difficult-to-translate calligraphy fonts), so let’s go through how to read those.
Size Chart
1. Again, 全款 – full payment.
2. 面料 – dress material.
3. 尺码表 – size chart.
4. 肩宽 – shoulder width
5. 胸围 – bust circumference
6. 腰围 – waist circumference
7. 衣长 – dress length
8. 袖长 – sleeve length.
Ready Stock vs Preorders: what does [定金], [现货]. or [尾款] mean in a listing?
Taobao lolita sellers typically have two ways they sell things: ready stock, or preorders.
If a listing has 现货 (often auto-translated as “spot”) in the title, it’s ready stock, which means that the store already has the item in stock and they’ll ship it to you right away if you order it.
If a listing has 定金 (“deposit”) in the title, it’s a preorder, and the amount on the listing is the amount you pay in the initial deposit.
Once the preorder period has ended, the store will put up a listing of the same product with the words 尾款 (“final payment”) in the title, which is the amount that you pay after the initial deposit.
So, the formula is: 定金 (deposit) + 尾款 (tail payment) = full price of item.
Once a store has finished both the deposit and tail payment periods, there may be leftover stock of the item that will become 现货 (ready stock). Typically these are limited in number and are more expensive than the full price of the item (定金 + 尾款), so there are benefits to preordering.
If you are shopping on Taobao through a shopping service, you will typically pay the full amount of the item to the shipping service when you first buy the item, so there’s no need to worry about missing the 尾款 listing.
If you see an item that you super want but has 尾款 in the listing…sorry, but the preorder period has ended, and you missed your chance to get that item. You can bookmark the store and hope there’s leftover stock to be sold as 现货, but there’s no guarantee you’ll get the item.
Lots of stores, however, have ‘rounds’ of production for items. Little Dipper’s Cherry Bolero, for example, has had many rounds of production and will likely come back (I think it’s in the preorder phase right now, actually), so if an item you like is a popular repeat item in a store, you may be able to find it again. I recommend keeping up with the updates on Chinese Lolita Updates (Facebook) to keep track of new production rounds.
List of Common Terminology
Payment
现货 – product in stock
定金 – deposit
全款 – full payment
尾款 – tail payment (what you pay after the deposit)
预约 – reservation
限定 – limited stock
定做 – made to order
工期 – production time
无货 – out of stock
Sizing
尺码表 – size chart
肩宽 – shoulder width
胸围 – bust circumference
腰围 – waist circumference
衣长 – shirt length
袖长 – sleeve length
裙长 – skirt length
全长 – full length
定制 – custom sizing
大码 – plus size
均码 – free size
Materials
面料 – Product material
Authenticity
原创, 独家制作 – original design
正品, 正 – authentic product
复刻, 山 – replica
The Taobao Website
Home Page
First, let’s look at the home page. I’ve labeled this image below with the things that are most important for you to know.
1. The search bar. You can use Petrovna’s Taobao Dictionary to search up common terms for lolita clothing. You can also use the little camera icon to upload images and search by image.
2. Your Taobao account page.
3. Your cart.
4. Your saved items/stores. If you hover over the link, the button with ‘宝贝‘ is your saved items, while the button with ‘店铺’ is your saved stores.
Image Searching
Next, let’s look at what pops up when I image search something. When I click the camera icon, my files pop up, and I can choose a saved image to search.
This is what Taobao comes up with when I search up an image of a dress that I like.
1. Here is where you would add additional images if you want to search multiple images of the same item.
2. b品 – b-list stock. Often this is stock that is defective or damaged in some way. If you want to buy b品, make sure to look carefully at the listing descriptions to see what defects are listed and whether or not you’re okay with that.
One thing about Taobao image search is that it often shows you a lot of replicas, since many businesses who replicate Taobao dresses are often on Taobao itself and use the stock photos of the original store to advertise their wares. This is why it is very helpful to know what brand your dress is. For example, I know that this dress that I like is from IchigoMikou, so when I see their store name pop up under the listing, I know it’s legit.
3. This is the name of IchigoMikou’s store. I know that this listing is real, although it is b-list stock, as indicated in the listing title.
4. 正版 – genuine article. This is a pretty good indicator that a listing is legit.
5. There’s IchigoMikou’s store name! Now I know for sure that this listing is legit.
6. This listing has IchigoMikou’s brand name in the title, but the store isn’t IchigoMikou. It’s also using IchigoMikou’s stock photos. It’s probably either a reseller or someone making replicas. Be suspicious of this listing.
7. This listing doesn’t even mention IchigoMikou in the title; instead, it’s some keywords and the title of the dress. They also use a stock photo from IchigoMikou. This is probably a replica listing. Be very suspicious of this listing.
Keywords to keep in mind to find legit listings:
原创, 独家制作 – original design
正品, 正 – authentic product
Differentiating between original designs, replicas, and “factory dresses” (resold by many stores, with no known original design) takes a while to learn. If you’re new to shopping on Taobao, don’t try to go it on your own. Start with browsing Taobao using a vetted list of shops like the Taobao Store List/Directory. Ask an experienced lolita for advice when needed.
BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK. If you don’t want to risk the chance of getting a really poor-quality replica of the dress that you wanted, DO NOT buy listings from image searches if you are not CERTAIN that the listing you’re buying is from the actual store.
Store Pages
That’s it for my ramble on figuring out replica listings. Next, let’s look at the home page of a specific store. Store layouts may vary, but they usually will all have the same bar up on top, and you can click on 所有分类 → 所有宝贝 to look at all listings.
8. The store’s ‘item as described’ rating, from 1-5. This lets you know if the majority of customers think the store’s items are high quality and arrive as described.
9. The store’s customer service rating, from 1-5. Self-explanatory.
10. The store’s delivery experience rating from 1-5. This lets you know if the majority of customers think the shipping process for this store is easy, hard, fast or slow, etc.
11. 所有宝贝 – all items. Hover over the top left link and click this link on the dropdown to see all listings.
12. 现货 – in stock. These characters in the description of a listing means that the item
is currently in stock and can be shipped quickly based on the store’s shipping policies.
13. 原创 – original product. These characters in the description of a listing means that the item is an original product designed by the store you are looking at.
The Taobao App
Home page
First, let’s look at the Taobao app home page. This is what you’re going to see when you first log into the app, assuming you’ve already made an account. There are a bunch of tutorials out there for how to make a Taobao account, so we’re not going to go over that in this guide.
1. This is the search bar! You can use Petrovna’s Taobao Dictionary to search up common terms for lolita clothing. You can also use the little camera icon to upload images and search by image.
2. This is your cart! Self-explanatory. No need to use this if you’re using a shopping service, but you can always add things to your cart to keep track of them.
3. This is your Taobao account! The next image shows the anatomy of your Taobao account page.
Account Information
Next, let’s look at your Taobao account information. This can be accessed by pressing the leftmost icon on the bottom of the Taobao app.
4. These are your saved items. This is useful if you see something you like on Taobao and would like to look at it later.
5. These are your saved stores. This is a nice shortcut to have if you want to visit a specific store you like.
6. This is your previously viewed item history. Useful if you need to find that one thing you saw a while ago but can’t remember what it was…
Stores
Next, let’s look at a specific store on Taobao. You can find stores by searching for items and looking at the store the item came from, or you can access a store using a direct link that opens the app.
7. This is the button for saving a store. You can find stores you’ve saved on your Taobao account page.
8. This is the number of years this store has been on Taobao.
9. This is the main page for if you want to browse listings. The translation of ‘宝贝‘ is ‘treasure’ or ‘baby’, which is why Google Translate always translates items in listings as ‘babies’. On Taobao, ‘宝贝’ is just shorthand for a product someone is selling.
10. This is the button for sorting listings by price, from low to high or high to low.
11. This is the cost of the baby you want to buy, in yuan.
12. If a listing has these characters next to it, it means that the price on the listing is a discounted price.
13. This is the number of people who have bought this item in the last 30 days.
Mobile Listings
Next, let’s look at a specific listing that this store has.
14. This is the customer service chat for the specific store you are looking at. If you need to ask any questions about the listing or the store, such as custom sizing options, this is where you go. Keep in mind that the shop staff (usually) does not speak English, so I recommend asking a shopping service to communicate any questions you have to them. If you want to communicate with them directly, you will most likely have to use translated Chinese.
15. This is the ‘Save item’ button. You can access your saved items later on your Taobao account page.
16. This is the ‘Add to cart button’.
17. This is the ‘Immediate buy’ button. I don’t know why anybody would use this, to be honest (except if you buy directly from Taobao and you’re squatting limited release item drops lmfao).
Buying
This is the screen that shows up when you click on a listing’s options.
18. These are the options for the listing. For lolita items, most products are listed by colorway or cut. Make sure that you’re tapping the right option for what you want. When in doubt, translate. Some stores also like to put short store policies here for some reason?
19. These are the sizing options for a listing. Always make sure to check below the listing to see if the store has sizing charts!
20. This is the amount of products you are buying.
Product Review
When you scroll down a Taobao listing, this is what you’re going to see after the product options.
21. This is the product review section.
22. Click here to look at all product reviews. You will have to translate them, and most Chinese lolitas generally review things positively, but you may be able to find some useful information on the listing you’re looking at.
23. This is the ‘Ask everyone’ section.
24. Click here to look at all questions people have asked about the product. Most of the time, people ask if a product will fit a specific size. You can also ask questions about a listing, and people who have already bought the product can respond to you.
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