Here’s a guide on how to haggle and get the absolute best price while shopping in China.
Shopping is very popular in China and you can find stores everywhere, whatever you are looking for in China you will have no problem finding it, China has stores for everything. The best place in Beijing for shopping and haggling is Silk Street.
Now, bargaining in China is very acceptable in most stores in China; the most famous of these places to haggle for the best deals is Silk Street in Beijing. Here is a guide on how to trade in China, as well as some of my own personal advice on how to get extra low prices. Usually in places like Silk Street, where haggling is expected, shops will raise prices quite a bit for foreigners, so persistence when haggling is the key. Haggling can be a lot of fun, I usually do it to joke around and make the atmosphere lighter, I like to make friends with shop owners which also helps get lower prices, but one important thing to remember is to make sure to be respectful
Here are some tips I have to help you get cheap prices and have fun haggling.
Smile:
One of the most important things to do is Smile, it is important to keep the atmosphere light and relaxed, not stressful, this helps the store owner to be more relaxed and will help you get cheaper prices.
Fun:
Have fun with him, make jokes, and you might even flirt with the store owner a bit. This is my favorite part and the one that helps me the most to get the lowest price. I would always create elaborate stories about why I should be given a lower price for the product I want.
Some examples of these stories are like:
I’m a bad student
I am Chinese (although I am actually American, I would tell them that I am Chinese and they should give me a good price)
If I were buying an electronic product, I would say that I am a robot and I need it to live.
The owner of the store tried to flirt with me saying that I am handsome and so on so that I would give them more money, but I always turned around and said that because I am handsome they should give me a better price.
So be creative and have fun, that’s what’s important.
Defects:
The second thing to know is that you are not going to buy the highest quality products while you are in China, and there are a lot of fake products, and you might stop for some time after you buy them. However, this also helps to your advantage, as bargaining points out flaws in the workmanship of what you want to buy, this will help drive the price down and put pressure on the store owner not to charge such a high price.
Browse the stores:
One good thing to do is once you find something you like, it’s good to look first to see the other stores that have the same product, because most of the time you will find stores that sell the same things. This helps to find the typical selling price so you can have a basis for where to start your negotiation, as well as use this as a point of leverage to get another store to offer you a cheaper price than the other.
The 1/3 rule:
Once the store owner gives you a price for a product you want, a typical good starting point for negotiation is to start with 1/3 of the price he suggested. An example of this is that I wanted to buy a calligraphy scroll painting of a dragon, and the shop owner started at 100 RMB, so I offered him 30 RMB to start with.
The rule of three:
This is the first rule I learned about how to haggle in China. I’ll call it the rule of three, which is walking away at least three times while haggling helps push the store owner down the price even more. If you walk away they will chase you down and give you a lower price, if they don’t chase you then you know that the price they gave is pretty close to the last price they would go down to.
These are the main points to consider when dealing and buying in China, I hope they are helpful to you, good luck and happy shopping.