the tofu house

Are you a homeowner keen on shipping Taobao furniture to Singapore via a 3rd party forwarder (3pf)? If yes, you’re in the right place!

Our story: both our flat and our renovation had cost us quite a fair bit of money, hence we wanted to save as much as we could on furniture and decided to get most of our items from Taobao.

Due to the timing of our renovation and handover, we were able to hold out until the 11.11 sale to cart out all our bulky furniture and send them to Singapore via sea shipping. However, do note that this takes a fair bit of luck and good planning! We were very lucky & grateful that everything arrived and all was in good condition.

(If you’d like to see all our Taobao loots, we’ve shared this on our Instagram so do head over to take a look!)

For those who are considering whether to use Taobao’s direct shipping service (Cainiao) or use a 3rd party forwarder (abbreviated to 3pf) for your Taobao shipping, we’ll share our personal experience, as well as answer some of the most important/common questions you may have.

Hopefully, our sharing will shed light on the differences between Cainiao and 3pf for Taobao shipping, and help you make the decision-making process easier!

If you have a specific question in mind or want to skip to the bits you need:

Which 3rd party forwarder (3pf) to use and how much does it cost to ship to Singapore?

We did a fair bit of research among the 3pfs, including the ones recommended by other home accounts, and eventually settled on 德力国际集转运.

Our shipping cost for 3.2CBM (Cubic Meter) was S$230 (before GST).

You can reach out to this 3pf directly through Taobao, or via Wechat.

Unfortunately they only communicate in Chinese. However, if you can only communicate in English and need some translation help, feel free to reach out to us!

We had a good experience with this 3pf and have recommended many other homeowners to engage 德力国际集转运 for Taobao furniture shipping. This is because all our deliveries didn’t take too long to arrive (about 1 month), were delivered in perfect condition (very lucky!), and we found that communication with them was rather smooth & timely.

Is it better to use Cainiao (Taobao) or 3pf to ship furniture to Singapore?

Cainiao (Alibaba’s logisitic company) only offers 180 yuan per 0.5kg for furniture, bulky and heavy items. If items do not exceed 180cm, they will go by volumetric weight.

Whether or not other 3pfs are much better than Cainiao will differ from company to company.

We would say that our 3pf was definitely much better than Cainiao for the following reasons:

• Upon request, our Taobao 3rd party forwarder consolidated and calculated the sum of volume per item for us. However, do note that other 3pf may only measure the overall volume after everything is packed together.
• 3pf will usually liaise with you to arrange local delivery. Our delivery arrived slightly earlier than planned, but worked for us as it gave us more time to unpack and assemble our furniture. We also appreciated that they kept us well-informed on when our deliveries would arrive in Singapore so that we could make arrangements to be at home to receive all the items.
• Based on our experience, once the shipment arrives in Singapore, local delivery with the 3pf’s Singapore counterpart is also much faster than that with Cainiao, who works with Singapore couriers such as SingPost and Ninja Van.

However, you may have other thoughts if you still prefer some peace of mind using Alibaba/Taobao’s official logistics, which is perfectly fine!

How do you estimate Taobao shipping cost when shipping with a 3pf?

If it’s not stated in the item description, ask the Taobao sellers for your parcel’s weight and dimensions.

Formula: Total CBM x rate = shipping cost

NOTE: Sea shipping usually goes by actual weight, volumetric weight, or volume. If your parcel is less than 150cm in length: rates are calculated according to weight or volumetric weight of shipment, whichever is higher.

Volumetric weight: L * W * H (in cm) / 6000

Big items are usually calculated by actual volume (CBM); smaller items are also calculated by volume IF they are shipped together.

What is the timeline & process for shipping Taobao furniture to Singapore via 3pf?

The usual timeline for shipping Taobao furniture with a 3pf is as follows:

1. Get the 3pf’s warehouse’s address/particulars – they will guide you on this. Then, fill this in your Taobao delivery address and message your seller.
2. Send them an excel screenshot of items you’re buying, with Courier Tracking number (快递单号) of each parcel.
3. Once all parcels have reached their warehouse, they will reach out to you with the total shipping cost and then you can make payment on Taobao.
4. Provide your particulars (name, address, contact number) for Singapore delivery. 3pf then provides you with your shipment order.
5. Once your shipment arrives in Singapore, 3pf may call you to arrange a delivery time slot (ours did!)

This is our 3pf timeline for reference:

Seller to warehouse > warehouse to Harbour (Tues/Fri) > wait for departure date > transit to SG > clear customs > wait for delivery appt call > wait for your parcel.

PERSONAL TIP: If you’re using 德力国际集转运 and want your shipment to leave the warehouse asap, cater time for the last item to be delivered to warehouse before Tue/Fri noon.

Will 3pf deliver bulky parcels to the doorstep?

If the items are too big and cannot be moved into the lift or are too heavy for the deliveryman to move, they will leave it on the first floor.

Otherwise, they will deliver to your doorstep!

Again, we must emphasise that we were very fortunate that our 3pf’s local delivery was very dedicated and helped to deliver all 32 pieces of furniture straight to our doorstep. This took them more than 5 trips to and fro, which was very tedious!

Have any further questions or need any guidance while engaging your 3pf? Feel free to drop them in the comments or reach out to us on Instagram!

And don’t forget to save this post so that you can refer to this in future when you need it ~

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