The forwarding order: you buy it, and the parcel is addressed to Hipobuy
A forwarding order begins after the purchase is already made; Hipobuy's part starts when a courier reaches its warehouse with a tracking number you have registered.
Hipobuy's definition, and its four names
Hipobuy heads the second order type 'Parcels Prepared by You or Your Friends'. You give the product details, the items are sent to the Hipobuy warehouse, and after the quality check you submit the parcel for international shipping. The total is international shipping plus the customs clearance fee; the item itself is not on Hipobuy's bill.
The same service goes by four names on Hipobuy's own pages. The homepage button and the menu say Forwarding Order. The disclaimer attached to the submit page says transfer. The order screen's confirmation says Transshipment Order. An older tutorial menu simply said Forwarding. They are one thing.
The interface defines it in one line: transporting goods you bought yourself in China, or goods sent by relatives and friends, to the warehouse, then overseas by Hipobuy's shipping service.
Creating one, step by step
- Sign in and open Forwarding Order from the homepage or the More menu. Signed out, the page sends you to the login screen; its interface text says to log in or register to get the warehouse address.
- Copy the warehouse address shown in your account and give it to the seller or sender, together with a request for the courier's tracking number.
- Enter the tracking number, with a parcel name and, if useful, contact details and remarks. Hipobuy's tutorial stresses typing the number accurately, because a wrong number means delays and extra questions.
- Submit. The forwarding order appears under Orders, where the number can still be changed with Modify Tracking Number.
- When the parcel arrives, the warehouse opens it, photographs the goods for you to confirm and stores them. After that the parcel is submitted and paid for like any other.
The tracking number is the whole order
In an agent order Hipobuy knows what it bought. In a forwarding order it knows only the tracking number you typed. The page's own warning reads that the tracking number is the only identification of your forwarding order and should not be disclosed to anyone.
That matters most when something does not match. Hipobuy's storage rules give 'abnormal packages', ones signed for by the warehouse but with incomplete logistics information that cannot be matched to an order or a user, 30 days from being signed for. Because nobody knows whose they are, no reminder is sent, and after 30 days they are treated as abandoned and destroyed.
Hipobuy also leaves the item list to you. The forwarding agreement says it does not provide a specific inventory or classification of goods, asks you to classify the goods yourself when filling in the order, and counts each item entry you add as one order.
What the warehouse does when your parcel arrives
Hipobuy's receiving rules are short. A parcel with severely damaged outer packaging, or one that does not meet the receiving requirements, is refused or returned on arrival. A parcel that passes is opened, every time, for a prohibited items check, then weighed and stored.
If the goods do not meet air or other transport requirements, the order is marked and you are asked to arrange a return. If no receipt shows up within the usual domestic shipping time, which Hipobuy puts at three to five days, it asks you to chase the sender or their courier.
The prohibited items check covers the whole list in Hipobuy's Prohibited Product Description, which includes counterfeit and pirated products as class XI. A forwarding order does not route around that list: the parcel is opened precisely to apply it.
Paying for a forwarding order
Nothing for the item passes through Hipobuy. You pay the seller in your own marketplace account, or the friend sending a gift pays for everything up to the warehouse. Hipobuy's first charge comes when you submit the parcel: shipping plus the customs line.
There is one exception, and Hipobuy writes it in capitals in the forwarding disclaimer: if the domestic courier's fee is collected on delivery, Hipobuy pays it and takes the cost from your account balance without asking you first. The same paragraph asks you to keep enough balance to cover it, so the goods can be stored.
In practice, ask the sender to prepay the courier. If that is not possible, top up your balance before the parcel arrives and expect the deduction to appear without a confirmation screen.
Where the warehouse address appears, and where it does not
The address, receiver name, postcode and mobile number appear only inside your account, with a Copy Address button. This site does not reprint them, for two reasons: the details in Hipobuy's own tutorial image include a mobile number, and the address you need is the one your account shows on the day you send.
What can be said is the city. The address image in Hipobuy's forwarding tutorial, uploaded in August 2025, shows Shenzhen in Guangdong province. Hipobuy's homepage only says its warehouse is in China.
If a seller asks for a different format, or the address in your account looks different from what a friend used last year, use your account's version and ask Hipobuy's support before the parcel leaves.
