Cross-border Price Comparison

Compare prices across Chinese e-commerce platforms and calculate total landed cost including shipping, duties, and taxes.

When to Use

• User asks “which platform is cheapest for X?”
• User wants to know total cost of importing a product
• User needs shipping cost estimates from China
• User asks about import duties or taxes
• User wants to compare 1688 wholesale vs Taobao retail vs AliExpress prices
• User asks to convert between CNY and other currencies

MCP Server Setup

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cross-border-price-compare": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@shopme/cross-border-price-compare-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

No API keys required! This MCP uses built-in calculation logic.

Available Tools

compare_price

Compare prices from multiple sources with full landed cost breakdown.

• sources: Array of products (platform, name, price in CNY or USD, weight)
• category: Product category for duty estimation
• destination: Country code
• shippingMethod: economy/standard/express/premium
• Returns: ranked results with savings calculation

calculate_landed_cost

Get detailed cost breakdown for a single product.

• priceCny or priceUsd: Product price
• weightKg: Package weight
• category: For duty rate lookup
• destination: Country code
• shippingMethod: Shipping speed tier
• Returns: full breakdown (product + shipping + duty + tax = total)

estimate_shipping

Compare shipping options and costs.

• weightKg: Package weight
• destination: Country code
• Returns: all shipping tier options with cost and delivery time

convert_currency

Quick currency conversion between major currencies.

• amount: Amount to convert
• from/to: Currency codes (CNY, USD, HKD, EUR, GBP, JPY, KRW, etc.)

Price Comparison Strategies

Quick Price Check

1. Search for the product on each platform
2. Note the price and currency (Taobao=CNY, AliExpress=USD)
3. Use compare_price with all sources to get ranked results

Full Cost Analysis

1. Identify product on multiple platforms
2. Estimate weight (check product specs or estimate)
3. Use calculate_landed_cost for each
4. Compare total costs, not just product prices

Key Insight: Don’t Compare Unit Prices Alone!

A ¥50 product on Taobao ≠ $7 on AliExpress because:

• Taobao: Â¥50 product + Â¥30 international shipping = $11.10 total
• AliExpress: $7 product + $0 shipping (free) = $7 total
• In this case, AliExpress is cheaper despite higher unit price!

Shipping Tiers

Import Duty Quick Reference (US)

• $800 de minimis: No duty on orders under $800 (US only)
• Electronics: 0% duty
• Clothing: ~12% duty
• Shoes: ~20% duty
• Cosmetics: ~6.5% duty
• Bags: ~20% duty
• Toys: 0% duty

Common Cross-border Routes