Fees and the exchange rate: where the money actually goes
The service fee is zero, which makes the real cost structure easy to misread. Here is every line item the official help centre names, plus the one charge that never appears as a line item at all.
The official cost formula
The services-and-fees article prices the agent service itself at zero: apart from item cost and shipping, no handling fees. The fee-calculation article gives the arithmetic in four stacked lines: the commodity cost, then the international freight, then the packaging fee, then whatever add-on services you ticked. The first line hides a second sum: commodity cost is the product price with the seller-to-warehouse domestic leg folded in.
Domestic shipping has one kindness built in: buy several items from the same seller in one purchase order and the domestic delivery fee is charged once, per the help centre, with a possible shortfall request if the combined weight runs over.
Two CNY 8 descriptions: the relationship is unresolved
Customs declaration cost: generally RMB 8.00 per parcel, listed in the services-and-fees article. Packaging consumables fee: RMB 8 per parcel, listed in the fee-calculation article. The two RMB 8 items are separate line items in two help articles; the site never states their relation, so this page lists them separately and never adds them together.
Why belabour a pair of small charges? Because the two articles never reference each other, and adding them into a single 16-yuan figure would be inventing a fact. Check which line items appear in your parcel checkout instead of automatically adding both.
Optional add-ons, priced
Selected services can add to the bill; required route or parcel charges must also be checked. The five add-ons most first orders meet, with the prices their help articles carried:
| Add-on service | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Priority purchase | 5 yuan per order | published indication: within 4 buyer working hours |
| Personalised photo | 2 yuan per piece | published indication: within 24 hours |
| Pre-packing rehearsal | 18 yuan per run | published indication: packed measurements within 24 hours |
| Storage extension | 10 yuan per order per 30 days | extension conditions and the order’s actual deadline govern; cooling-off is not guaranteed extra free storage |
| Parcel photos | free, 3 photos | must be ticked when submitting the parcel |
The free row matters most: three parcel photos cost nothing but only happen if ticked when submitting the parcel. Un-ticked is unphotographed.
Payment channels and the quiet charge
The official payment pages disagree: help articles 64 and 99 describe PayPal at 3.5% + US$0.30, while article 65 describes 2.9% + US$0.30 and contains a different illustrated calculation. These are conflicting official examples, not a guaranteed current fee. Check the amount debited, CNY credited and any separately charged fee on the actual payment screen. The captured Alipay and WeChat article states no handling fee and 1–60 minutes; current method availability and processing can differ.
The conversion rate affects the whole order even when the service fee is zero. The retained 8 October 2026 comparison recorded +8.5% FX markup and the same +8.5% for FX plus the standard service fee, with that service fee recorded as zero. Payment-channel fees are outside that comparison. For your budget, compare the actual amount debited with CNY credited and separately charged fees; that effective funding cost is not a measurement of FX alone.
Wallet mechanics worth knowing before a big top-up: recharge refunds return to the original payment method with the handling fee on you, may be requested only after two days have passed since the recharge, and remittance refunds need card or identity verification plus two to three days, per the refund terms article, checked 2026-10-10.
Freight is the biggest variable line. The public estimator quotes it for your destination and weight before you commit to anything.
Open the shipping estimator