Just last month, the news announced that Taobao is now available in English. This is definitely fantastic news for those who are looking to buy a lot of home furniture and tools from the Chinese ecommerce site.
Unfortunately, for those who have previously used (or tried to use) the original Chinese Taobao, you may realise that the English version is not quite the same. Even figuring out how to change the setting can be a pain if you’re not proficient in Chinese!
In this article, we share how you can update your current settings to use the English version. We also share some preliminary thoughts, including differences and inconveniences, of using the English version!
Suggested read: We shipped 32 pieces of Taobao furniture with a 3pf – here’s what to note
How to set Taobao app to english version
If you’re a new user, you just have to set English as the default language and Singapore as your location at the set-up page.
If you have previously downloaded the app and have an existing account, you can follow the following steps to change your language:
- Click on 我的淘宝 (My Taobao) in the lower right hand corner. When you reach this page, click on 设置 (Settings) in the top right hand corner.
2. Click on the option that says 国家/地区、语言、货币 (Country/region, language, currency).
3. Your default language setting should be 中文 (Chinese). Change this to English.
4. Select your currency (in our case, SGD).
5. And you’re done! You should now see that everything is written in English. Remember to select ‘Confirm’.
Our review of Taobao English app version
We’ve typically always used the Chinese version and haven’t had any issues.
However, we were quite curious about how functional it is and whether there are any differences between the English & Chinese version. Hence, we got around to trying it and here are some key differences we found:
Different app interface
The English and Chinese app versions have different home interfaces, which may affect your shopping experience.
Funnily enough, the English version seems to focus less on discovery and more on getting straight to the products and categories you need.
Product unavailability
If you look in your shopping cart, you may realise that certain items are marked as unavailable. You also get prompted to switch to the Chinese version to checkout.
We’re not sure why this happens. Initially we thought it could be a seller issue i.e. doesn’t want to communicate in English, but it seems like only individual items from shops are affected.
Awkward translations
This is quite common across platforms that have systems which directly translate Chinese to English, such as Shopee and Ezbuy.
While it works for most products,
The translations for the reviews seem better though:
Surprisingly, the chat function also has a translation function! It’s still a little awkward given that it’s a direct translation, which may be a little tedious especially if you’re shipping large and/or fragile items.
Concluding thoughts on Taobao English version
In short, does the Taobao English version work? Yes.
Does it work well? Maybe, not quite.
It’s likely that Taobao will further refine their English version with time, but in the meantime if you’d like to engage a service that will take care of everything for you, do consider the tofu house’s Taobao shopping service!
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