Buyer calculator · Taobao buying agent

Taobao Buying Agent Cost

Buying-agent orders (also known as daigou) stack five layers of cost: item, China-domestic shipping, agent fee, international shipping, and customs. This calculator models all of them.

VAT verified 2026-05-28.

Your inputs

From seller to your daigou's warehouse.

How buying-agent (daigou) cost actually breaks down

Buying from Taobao via an agent is rarely as cheap as it looks on the listing page. The sticker price you see is just the first of five costs that compound:

  1. Item price — what you pay the Taobao seller (in CNY).
  2. China-domestic shipping — from seller to your agent's warehouse, often 8-30 CNY.
  3. Agent fee — 5-15% of item price, paid to your buying agent (Superbuy, CSSBuy, Pandabuy, Taobaoring, etc.).
  4. International shipping — by weight, 8-45 CNY/kg depending on method (sea / EMS / DHL).
  5. Customs + VAT at your destination, identical to Temu/AliExpress rules.

Why a 100 CNY shirt becomes a 280 CNY shirt

Real-world example: 100 CNY shirt + 12 CNY China shipping + 8% agent fee (8 CNY) + 1 kg DHL (45 CNY) + 19% German VAT on subtotal (~31 CNY) = ~196 CNY landed. Doubled, give or take. The math is the math — but seeing it before you order is the point.