How to order any Taobao or marketplace link on LitBuy

Spreadsheets, Reddit posts and TikTok comments are full of raw marketplace links. None of them can be bought directly from outside China, but every one of them can be ordered through LitBuy in a few clicks.

Step 1: get a link LitBuy can read

• Taobao and Tmall: look for item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=… or detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=….
• Share links from the apps (short links, or text with a code) often need to be opened once in a browser to get the full product URL.

Step 2: open it on LitBuy

Paste the link into the search bar on litbuy.com or in the app. LitBuy loads the listing with photos, options and the current price in yuan. Items from the LitBuy Spreadsheet skip this step: each card already opens the item on LitBuy.

Step 3: read the LitBuy options carefully

Option names are machine-translated and can be odd: colours named after numbers, sizes mixed with style names. Match each option with the photos. Sellers often show the colour or the size chart in an image rather than in the text, and some listings bundle different items under one link.

• Check the price per option: the cheapest option is sometimes a different product or a small accessory.
• Look for notes such as “pre-sale” or a ship date: made-to-order items take longer to reach the warehouse.

Step 4: LitBuy remark, cart and checkout

Anything the options do not cover goes into the remark field for the purchasing team, for example: “if colour 2 is out of stock, cancel instead of replacing”. Checkout, the warehouse check and shipping then work as for any other item; see how to use LitBuy.

When a link does not load on LitBuy

• The listing may have been removed by the seller; old spreadsheet links die regularly.
• Try the clean product URL without tracking parameters after the ID.
• Search the seller’s store for the item name, or look for the same product in another find.

Next: what to check once the item has arrived, in the QC photo guide.