Speak the language

The hive dictionary

China-agent shopping has its own vocabulary, and the jargon scares off more beginners than the process itself. Here's every term you'll meet on this site — and across the wider spreadsheet community — in plain English.

The basics

Shopping agent: A service that buys items from Chinese sellers on your behalf, receives them at its own warehouse, and forwards them to you. 360beestbuy is a shopping agent. It exists because most Chinese sellers won't ship abroad or take foreign cards.
Spreadsheet: A shared list of product links (Taobao, Weidian, 1688 URLs) that shoppers collect and organise by category. You browse the spreadsheet to find items, then buy them through an agent. See the spreadsheet, explained.
W2C (“where to cop”): Community shorthand for “where can I buy this?”. A W2C site or discovery hub — like W2Cspreadsheet.com — sorts finds so you can locate the item you want and grab its link.
Discovery hub: The site where you browse and search finds before buying. On this guide, product links open the hub; the agent handles the purchase. Keeping the two separate is the core idea here.
Haul: The full set of items you buy over time and ship together. Building a haul (rather than shipping one item at a time) is how you make consolidation and the free-storage window pay off.

Buying & quality

QC (quality control): The warehouse step where your item is checked and photographed before shipping. 360beestbuy flags obvious defects. See the QC guide for what to look for.
QC photos: Photos of your actual item in the warehouse — colour, tags, stitching, visible defects. Your one clear look before you pay to ship. They show condition, not authenticity or exact fit.
Seller / shop: The Chinese merchant who actually lists and sells the item on Taobao, Weidian, etc. The agent buys from the seller for you.
Size chart: The seller's measurements table, usually in centimetres. Chinese sizing runs small and varies by seller, so always match the chart in CM rather than your usual size letter.
Service fee: What the agent charges for buying, receiving and processing your order, if applicable. Confirm current fees in your account — we don't quote fixed figures. See Fees.

Storage & shipping

Warehouse: The agent's facility in China where your purchases arrive, get QC'd and wait. Items ship from here to you, not from the seller directly.
Storage window: How long items can sit in the warehouse for free — up to 300 days with 360beestbuy. The window is what lets you build a haul on your own timing. See Storage.
Consolidation: Combining several stored items into one outbound parcel. Fewer parcels usually means lower shipping per item — the single biggest lever a beginner controls.
Volumetric weight: A “size” weight based on a parcel's dimensions. Couriers charge on whichever is greater — actual or volumetric — so bulky-but-light hauls can cost more than the scale suggests. Removing boxes reduces it.
Domestic shipping: The cheap in-China leg from the seller to the agent's warehouse. Paid at order time, alongside the item price.
International shipping (freight): The leg from the warehouse to your country, priced by weight, volume and line. Paid at parcel time, after consolidation.
Shipping line: A specific courier/route option to your country. Faster lines cost more; economy lines are cheaper and slower. Some restrict certain goods.
Forwarder / transshipment: A service that only receives and re-ships parcels you've already bought yourself, without doing the buying. An agent like 360beestbuy does the buying too; a pure forwarder does not.
Restricted items: Goods that lines or customs limit — liquids (some perfume), batteries and power banks, and replicas of protected brands. Check the line's rules before ordering these.
Customs & duties: Your country's import checks and any tax charged on arrival. Set by your customs, not the agent, and part of your true total cost.

The six platforms

Taobao (淘宝): China's biggest consumer marketplace — the default field for most finds. Huge choice, variable seller quality.
Tmall (天猫): Taobao's brand and official-store tier. More consistent listings, usually higher prices.
JD.com (京东): Known for first-party stock and electronics, with a reputation for authenticity and quick dispatch. Uncommon among agents.
1688: Wholesale- and factory-facing marketplace. Lower unit prices, especially in quantity; business-oriented listings.
Weidian (微店): WeChat-based marketplace of small independent sellers — home to a lot of niche and hyped items.
Goofish (闲鱼): China's big second-hand marketplace. Great for sold-out or pre-owned finds; each item is unique, so verify condition through QC.

Haul-planning slang

Anchor item: The item you want most — the one you start a haul with. Everything else rides along with it.
Rider item: A small, light add-on (a tee, hat, accessory) that ships cheaply alongside your anchor rather than in its own parcel.
Drop / batch: A round of buying — several finds ordered around the same time — that you plan to consolidate into one shipment.

Missing a word? The Loop shows every term in action, and the FAQ answers the questions these terms usually raise.