Our (that's Taobot, RepArchive, etc.) whole topic is shopping from China for private individuals.
Taobao, Weidian and 1688 are websites, that (generally speaking) have great deals, but only ship inside of China. You could argue, that that's the reason they have great deals, because the average income level is much lower there, compared to most western countries.
Regardless of the reason, you cannot just buy from them and get it delivered. For one you need a Chinese bank account, secondly they don't ship internationally. This is where shopping agents come in. Shopping agents are located in China, and buy the items for you and ship them internationally. That's the gist of it.
RepArchive develops software to help you in this area, such as a shipping calculator, best sellers list or a browser extension. Taobot is one of those software solutions.
added: 7/3/2023