Trying to create an account

[u/Melodic-Bake-3583]

Hi everyone,

I know questions like this have been asked many times, so I apologies if this has been answered.

I was trying to login to Taobao with AliPay and WeChat, and it will initially let me start making the account. It will send me a verification code, and I will put the code in, and then after that it will give me an additional security layer where I have to send a text message to a Chinese number, and this is where I’m unable to do so, as I have a US number. I was wondering if anyone has any advice or tips here? Has anyone else run into this? Please please advise I am going to China soon and want to order stuff to my hotel.

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[u/YukioKushinada]

If you’re from US, taobao restricts users from creating an account there

[u/Melodic-Bake-3583 → u/YukioKushinada]

Would I be able to make an account in mainland china or hongkong? or is the ultimate issue my number

[u/YukioKushinada → u/Melodic-Bake-3583]

You can create an account once you’re in china. As for the number i think you still need a chinese number. However once you return to US and open taobao, i think it’ll detect that the ip address is in states and it’ll block your account iirc

[u/Cramson_Sconefield]

It's the number. Once you land you can pick up a Chinese SIM with your passport and the text step goes through. But if the goal is just getting stuff to your hotel you don't need a Taobao account at all. I'd use Baopals, which is Taobao and Tmall in English. Full disclosure, I'm a co-founder there so obviously biased. Your US card works and you just put the hotel as the delivery address.

[u/Melodic-Bake-3583 → u/Cramson_Sconefield]

I tried using it but I can't seem to find the particular shop I am looking for on there

[u/Cramson_Sconefield → u/Melodic-Bake-3583]

There isn’t a shop search yet, but you can get there through a product. Search for something you know that shop sells (or the brand name), open the listing, and click the shop name next to “Shop:” on the product page. That takes you to the full store, and you can favorite it so it’s easy to find next time. One catch: shop names show up translated into English, so searching for a product usually works better than searching for the shop’s name.

If you can’t find anything from them, send the shop name or a link to us on live chat (bottom right of the site) and we’ll send you the shop page.