Online shopping website Taobao has secured a place in every savvy foreigner's lexicon since debuting in 2003. Similar to eBay and Amazon, Tabao is a place where anything and everything can be found - from the now-banned human placenta to more common-place household items - making it a perfect stop for finding Christmas stocking stuffers. Best of all, these prices come fixed, saving a newbie bargain-hunter the hassle of haggling.

Why opt for Taobao when there are a plethora of markets with cheap goods in China? Simply put, Taobao is cheaper, more convenient and has items not found at your corner shop. 

So stay home in your pajamas or have an actually productive day at work surfing the Internet. From coworkers to significant others, your gift list needs can be met in one fell swoop on Taobao. More than 370 million registered users can't be wrong.

The lowdown

Unfortunately, there is no English version of Taobao yet.

Many middle agents are willing to help facilitate Taobao purchases, such as TaobaoFieldGuide.com. These English-language sites, which also offer services to people overseas, help in navigating the tricky world of shopping online in Chinese for a small fee when Google translate just won't cut it.

For the free route (after all, Taobao is the cheapskate's mecca), ask a friend or colleague literate in Chinese, or use shopping as a great incentive to learn enough to point, click and pay.

The orange-outlined search box is where your cursor will immediately point, and knowing the keywords of what you're searching for may require a dictionary. As pictures speak a thousand words, the actual browsing part is easy, even for the illiterate. 

Registering an account may require the help of someone better-versed in Chinese, as it requires you to accurately fill in personal information.

Though there are various payment options, the most common one is to use a debit or credit card, though to pay with a debit card, you will need to activate the online banking option, which can be done in one quick visit to the bank.

Quality quandary

Once you've managed to find what you want, you will need to filter for quality. 

Emmie Ye, a 24-year-old from the US, is an experienced Taobao shopper who often peruses the site to purchase designer clothes at bargain prices.

"The major thing to successful Taobao shopping is to make sure you research the rating system and read the comments," she said. "It's also important to check whether a seller has a good credit history."

Ye said you can spot a user's rating by checking the icon under their name. The hierarchy starts at crown, then diamonds and, last of all, hearts. Ye cautions first-time users to be extra careful when purchasing from hearts.

Going through the comments is another way to determine how accurate the descriptions and stated measurements are. Be warned, for instance, if clothes from one vendor tend to run on the small side.

Thoughtful, bizarre gifts

If you're in a hurry, where can you go to find a yellow raincoat with a British soccer player's name tacked to the back, sized "golden retriever?"

Chen Dong, a Beijing resident who spends much of his workday online shopping, was able to purchase a dog raincoat that said "Beckham" on it for a dear dog, after the canine's previous raincoat tore. He was surprised by the large amount of doggie clothing at cheaper prices (just 38 yuan, or $6) than the options available at the Silk Market.  

As for more exotic items, many online shops were reportedly selling placentas (taipan), a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) novelty. Though human placenta isn't available now (totally illegal), sheep extract placenta (yangtaisu), which supposedly restores stem cells, can be found in the convenient form of gel caps and prices start at 26 yuan. Score!

For someone feeling self-conscious about their unpopularity, you can inflate their online ego by buying them followers on Sina Weibo. Prices start at 7 yuan for 3,000 zombie followers.

Collectors can also fulfill their nerd fantasies by filling up their Taobao shopping carts with hard-to-find specialty goods.

"People overseas use Taobao for great bargains, but there are also niche communities, such as aficionados of Chinese timepieces or Chinese teas," Orion Richardson, the founder of the TaobaoFieldGuide.com, wrote in an e-mail to Metro Beijing. "People search Taobao for collectible prototype action figures that have snuck out of the factory. People who love cosplay pool their orders together in groups to save international shipping costs."

Smart shopping

Not everyone is a fan of Taobao. Other e-commerce websites, such as 360buy, amazon.cn and Yihaodian provide similar services.  

"For electronics, I use 360buy and amazon.cn because they're fast and offer free shipping," said 29-year-old Andrew Huang, a Beijing resident and online shopping enthusiast. "If you make your purchase online before 11 am, they will ship on the same day. I also like how they have reliable vendors. If you are concerned about product reliability on Taobao, I'd recommend these sites."

Smart shoppers agree that the key to successful online shopping is discerning what is worth buying online.

"The only things I would buy off Taobao (aside from doggy clothing) is imported stuff that would be too costly for me to physically import, or sold at too high a premium domestically, such as my recent headphones purchase," said Chen.

"I bought my headphones from an authorized re-seller (on Taobao) that came with an invoice, and they were the retail version made for the China market. The Sundan store carried them, but at a 30 percent premium," he said. The headphones set him back 1,450 yuan.

"Taobao does have more variety, and you can buy stuff that you can't find on other websites," he added.

Meanwhile, Huang uses Taobao to buy everything, from basic life staples like body lotion to cell phones to money requests from non-credit card holding friends.

One recent purchase Huang made was a fake deer head (1,200 yuan) for his friend's artwork.

"It was delivered promptly and the deer head was exactly as advertised," he said.