Belts, trousers and footwear: the lower shelves
Waist, legs and soles: the shelves where a centimetre matters most, and where shoe boxes quietly double a parcel.
Waist and legs
Belts are sized in centimetres, normally measured from where the prong sits to the centre hole. The standard belt photos are a close-up held in hand, the item with its box, and a front-and-side view. If the length is not in the listing, ask the seller through a DIY order note or pay for a detail photo with a ruler.
Jeans often come in the format MambaBuy's Size Assistant describes: 29W x 30L, waist 29 inches and inseam 30 inches, with one inch equal to 2.54 cm. Some trousers add S, R or L for short, regular and long legs. Measure the waist where you actually wear the trousers, and the inseam from crotch seam to hem.
Sweatpants and shorts are forgiving at the waist and unforgiving in length. Socks sit on the list of underwear items MambaBuy treats as non-returnable without a fault.
Soles: six footwear shelves
Sneakers are the single largest shelf, at 5,437 when we counted, against 21 for leather shoes. Footwear is also where parcels grow: boxed shoes can take up twice the room of the pair alone.
MambaBuy offers three box choices. Removing the original box is free and decided by the packing staff, who keep it if removal is not advisable; shoes without a dust bag go into a shipping bag. A collapsible shoe box costs CN¥3 each, but the help warns that folding creases the box and the item can no longer use after-sales service. Shoe trees cost CN¥8 each and are recommended for leather shoes and boots.
Shoes get three standard photos: a side view, a side view held in hand, and the label. Slides and slippers swap the first for a front view.
Foot length, the one number to have
MambaBuy's Size Assistant gives a formula that turns a European size into foot length: (European size + 10) x 0.5. Size 42 works out at 26 cm. It also gives the method: stand on paper, mark heel and longest toe, measure both feet in the afternoon when feet are largest, and use the larger foot. Chinese shoe sizes record length only, so the help suggests half a size up for wide feet.
Check the listing's own chart against your centimetre figure rather than your usual size; two sellers of the same model can disagree by half a size.
Returning lower-shelf items
New shoes and clothes can only go back if anti-theft tags and stickers are still on, and there is no sign of wear or washing, according to MambaBuy's special return standards. The window is five days from Stored, so try nothing on until the photos have arrived and you have compared them with the listing.
Returns in your first request of a calendar month carry no MambaBuy service fee; later requests that month cost CN¥5 to CN¥20 for a return and CN¥10 to CN¥25 for an exchange, on top of shipping both ways.
