Many luxury brands went on sale and Chinese buyers snapped up bargains as the yuan appreciated strongly against the euro, British pound, Australian dollar, US dollar and Japanese yen, among other currencies.

The most popular products from overseas are designer clothes and accessories, cosmetics and health products (such as vitamins, supplements and diet pills).

The most popular destinations include Japan, South Korea, America, Australia and France.

"Most Western brands have always been much more expensive on the Chinese mainland, because of tariff and additional costs on regional sales agents," says editor Huang.

"Some brands like Coach or Nine West are not that costly in the West, but they are sold at much higher prices here," she adds.

She has written a series of articles and posted guidelines on her magazine's Website about how to choose online stores selling overseas products.

"The price has dropped more than half for a lot of well-known brands like LV, Coach and Shiseido, both because of discounts and depreciation of other currencies in the financial crisis," says Huang.

Shopping can be quite tricky for new buyers since hundreds of search results pop up for popular brands.

On the other hand, many rookies jump right into sales "to make some extra money in the bad times," like 28-year-old marketing manager Linda Xu who works in Seoul.

"Some South Korean cosmetics and fashions are very popular in China, probably because of the Korean TV dramas and the low prices," says Xu via telephone.

Xu charges 10 percent of the product price for handling and transport, according to an unwritten industry rule.

It can be up to 20 percent, depending on the product.

It is still 20 to 30 percent cheaper than buying on the Chinese mainland, however.

This often means a saving of a couple hundred yuan or more than 1,000 yuan on luxury brands or cosmetics.

Xu goes shopping three to four times a week in Seoul and makes around 4,000 yuan every month - not bad, she says, for a part-time job that doesn't require a lot of investment or skills.

Her income peaked at 9,000 yuan last November when Korean won dropped rapidly.

Philippe Guo, studying at the University of Chicago for a master's degree, is another rookie purchaser.

He works for a small online store selling clothes and home appliances that compares prices of the same product in different areas.

Guo is paid on commission. He usually goes shopping twice a week and makes about 2,500 yuan every month.

His workload and monthly income have both tripled since last September.

Tips from fashion editor Momo Huang

1. It's better not to buy cosmetics online. It's difficult to verify whether they are genuine, and you should be careful about what you put on your face.

2. Choose a relatively well-known and large Website and research well before ordering, particularly for small private stores. Read users' comments carefully.

3. Confirm your requirement with the seller carefully to ensure you get the right products.

4. Ask sellers to provide shopping receipts, invoices and the addresses and contact numbers for stores where they purchased.

5. Save all online communications with the seller.

6. Be cautious if the online store sells everything, particularly when it's a small private one. The store owner is less likely to have access to so many categories of products made or sold in many different areas. The sellers who stick to a few categories in one country is more likely to be genuine.

7. Don't trust a ridiculously low price (less than half). If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. It's impossible for sellers to get such a cheap sale.

(Shanghai Daily April 20, 2009)