1688 shopping questionsAnswers with their sources.
Find practical answers, unresolved questions and the right place to ask for help with an order.
The questions with an answer on record
Each of these is sourced from an agent help page or an agent agreement, and each links on to the page where the wording is quoted in full. Nothing here is a general impression of how ordering from China works.
Can I order from 1688 through a shopping agent at all?
Yes. Three of the agents whose documents we read name it in the list of sites their order form reads automatically, alongside Taobao and Tmall. Being on that list is where the agreement starts, not where it ends.
Why would an agent treat my order differently from a Taobao one?
One agent wrote a separate paragraph into its registration agreement for these orders. In it, it declines to guarantee the quality of the goods, declines to promise the stock figure is accurate, and describes its inspection and after-sales for them as limited.
Do I have to buy more than one piece?
Often, yes. Suppliers set their own minimum order and the agent will tell you to check it on the listing rather than check it for you. No agent we read publishes a typical minimum, so we do not print one either.
Will my parcel be inspected when it reaches the warehouse?
The help page promises a thorough inspection with photographs on arrival, and then adds in the next line that goods from this marketplace are held to a different set of quality control standards. What that difference is was not defined in any document we read.
Can I ask for the outer box to be removed, or the package reinforced?
Yes. The same ordering guide lists removal of packaging, reinforcement of the package and insurance as additional services, and asks you to write the request in the remarks field when you order.
Do I choose the shipping method myself?
Partly. Some items carry restrictions on delivery method, and the agent narrows the list to the options it believes can carry your parcel. You pick from what is left rather than from everything.
How long does it take?
The only published figure we found describes the domestic step, the seller getting the parcel moving inside China. It is quoted on the shipping page with the operator named. For the international leg, no agent we read publishes a number.
What if my link is from a site the order form cannot read?
You type the order in by hand. One agent calls that DIY Orders and labels it as its fourth ordering method; another asks you to fill in the link, name, price and related details yourself.
The longer versions sit on the clause page, buying on 1688, checks and shipping and fees, each with the quotation and the address you can read it at.
Two lines, two answers
Delivery methods you do not fully choose
Two of the questions above are answered by the same small block on the ordering page, and it is worth seeing them together, because they are the same kind of sentence: a narrowing followed by an offer.
Source excerpt
OrientDig, first line of that block:
Some items may have restrictions on delivery method. We have selected some recommended delivery options for you to choose from.
Quoted from Shopping assistant guidance, OrientDig, last modified 2025-06-30. We re-opened it on 2026-10-06 and the wording had not changed.
Read that as a filter rather than a service. The shortlist you are given is already the set of routes the operator believes can legally carry what is in your box to your country. If a method you expected is missing, that is usually the answer, not a bug.
OrientDig, second line of the same block:
Additional services, such as removal of packaging, reinforcement of package, and insurance, are available. Please specify your request in the remarks section and we will comply.
Quoted from Shopping assistant guidance, OrientDig, last modified 2025-06-30. We re-opened it on 2026-10-06 and the wording had not changed.
This one is the opposite shape: an offer, with the mechanism named. The remarks field is a free text box, which means these requests are read by a person rather than selected from a menu. Write them plainly and write them at order time, because the packaging decision is made before anyone asks you a second time.
The questions nobody has answered in writing
These come up constantly and we cannot answer them, because the documents do not. Saying so is more useful than filling the gap with something plausible, so each entry records where we looked and what was there instead of an answer.
| The question | Where we looked | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| How much of an order sampling actually covers | Registration agreement, ordering guide, help centre | The word limited, with no figure attached |
| What limited after-sales includes and excludes | Registration agreement | The phrase appears once and is never expanded |
| Whether the paid sourcing service restores the quality guarantee | Registration agreement | Named as the route for a guaranteed purchase, scope not described |
| What the different set of quality control standards is measured against | Ordering guide, help centre | Named in a tips line, defined nowhere |
| Transit time for the international leg | Three agent help centres | No published figure of any kind |
| Whether the domestic purchase is refunded when an item cannot be exported | Three agent help centres | Nothing found either way |
Two patterns are visible in that right-hand column. The first is naming without defining: a term is introduced, carries real weight, and is never explained. The second is silence on anything with a number in it, which is consistent across all three operators and probably deliberate, since a published figure is a figure you can be held to.
If you find one of these answered somewhere we missed, we would rather be corrected than keep the entry. The address is on the about page, and one corrected answer here is worth more to the next reader than our tidy table.
If something goes wrong, here is the order to ask in
This site is a reading desk. It holds no order, no money and no parcel, so it cannot look anything up for you. What it can do is tell you who actually holds the thing you are asking about, which is usually the slow part.
- The parcel, the payment or the inspection photographs. The agent you ordered through, through its own support channel. It is the only party with your order number, and the only one that can refund, reship or escalate anything.
- A product card that leads nowhere. Report its address and category to our editor using the email on the about page. A removed listing may need an updated link.
- Something on this site that is wrong or out of date. Us. Contact us by email and say which page and which sentence. Every quotation here carries the date we last re-opened the source, so a correction is easy to check and easy to make.
One thing we will not do is contact an agent on your behalf or intervene in a dispute. We are partners of several agents and earn a referral fee, which means we are the wrong party to arbitrate your case and you should not want us to. Going straight to the operator is both faster and in your interest.
Before you write to anyone, it helps to know what was promised. That is the whole purpose of the clause page: a complaint that quotes an operator's own wording back to it starts in a very different place than one that starts with being disappointed.