Shopping in Taiwan

Supermarkets and hypermarkets

Each chain's own store finder shows where it has stores. We list what each finder showed when we checked; we don't rank them.

Good to know: 萬家福's member terms on its about page offer returns within 30 days of purchase, and a refund of the difference if a member finds the same item cheaper, also within 30 days.

Drugstores, household goods and furniture

Convenience stores

Each company states its own size:

• 7-ELEVEN (統一超商) More than 7,300 stores; 8,324 service points counting stores and its 智FUN machines (October 2026). Some stores share space with Daiso, Cosmed, Starbucks and others.
• FamilyMart (全家便利商店) 4,506 stores, as its investor site shows (no date given).
• Hi-Life (萊爾富) 1,807 stores in 2025.
• OK mart (OK超商) About 850 stores, in Keelung, Taipei, Taoyuan, Miaoli, Hsinchu, Taichung, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and other places.

What they do besides selling things, as the chains describe it:

• Printing, copying and fax. At 7-ELEVEN an A4 copy or print costs NT$3 a page in black and white and NT$10 in colour; A3 is NT$4 and NT$20. A domestic fax is NT$15 a page, international NT$80, and receiving one NT$8. At FamilyMart you upload a file on the FamiPort website, get a print code, and print at any FamiPort machine.
• Bills. 7-ELEVEN takes payments 24 hours a day, all year: water, electricity, gas, phone bills, NHI premiums, traffic fines, taxes (up to NT$30,000), school fees and more. Foreign and UnionPay cards can pay only some items. → Paying bills
• Cash. The ATMs in 7-ELEVEN stores are CTBC (中國信託) machines. → Money: cash, cards and ATMs

Online shopping with convenience store pickup

Many online shops let you pick a convenience store as the delivery address. You can also send a parcel from one store to another.

• 7-ELEVEN store to store (交貨便) NT$60 on the main island. To or from Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu Nangan and Beigan, NT$140 (offer price NT$60).
• FamilyMart store to store (店到店) On the main island, a parcel sent today usually arrives the day after tomorrow (not always for Hualien, Taitung, special stores, before Lunar New Year or in big sales). Frozen parcels take about 3 to 5 days. Outlying islands have no set time.
• OK mart home delivery to store (宅轉店) The courier texts you when the parcel arrives. Collect it within 3 days. Up to 90cm in total size and 5kg; cash on delivery up to NT$5,000.

Picking up:

• At 7-ELEVEN, the sender writes real names matching ID. For a cash on delivery parcel you give the clerk your real name and the last three digits of your phone number, and pay. For an already paid parcel you also show photo ID matching the name on it.
• OK mart's page asks for "a national ID card, driving licence or NHI card" for an already paid parcel.
• FamilyMart sends pickup texts on day 1 and day 3. Unclaimed parcels go back to the sender's store after 7 days (frozen after 5). At outlying island stores, unclaimed parcels are not returned but destroyed.
• If your chosen 7-ELEVEN closes, you get a text and have seven days to pick another store. Some stores, for example in railway and high speed rail stations, don't offer the service.
• 7-ELEVEN says you can report fraud involving an online-shop parcel on its fraud complaint platform within 7 days of pickup.

Your 7 day right to cancel online purchases

Under the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法, art. 19), when you buy online, by phone or by mail (通訊交易), or from a seller at your door, you can cancel within seven days after you receive the goods or service:

• with no reason and at no cost;
• by sending the goods back or by written notice. Posting the goods or the notice within the seven days counts;
• if the seller didn't tell you about this right, the seven days start the day after they do, but the right ends four months after the first seven days began;
• a contract term that takes this right away is void.

The seven exceptions apply only if the seller told you about them:

1. Perishable goods, goods with a short shelf life, or goods about to expire.
2. Items made to your order.
3. Newspapers, periodicals and magazines.
4. Audio-visual goods or software you have unsealed.
5. Digital content not on a physical medium, or an online service completed once provided, that starts with your consent.
6. Personal hygiene products you have unsealed.
7. International air tickets.

Electronics and phones

For buying online, see the 7 day rules above. For setting up a Taiwan phone number → Bank account and phone

For electronics shopping in person, Inside Taipei's shopping guide has a section on Guanghua Digital Plaza in Taipei.

If something goes wrong

• 1950 Dial 1950 during office hours (not over lunch) and you reach the consumer service center of the city or county you are in. It costs an ordinary local or mobile call and isn't included in free-minute plans.

The Executive Yuan's consumer protection site (cpc.ey.gov.tw) describes these steps:

1. Complain to the business first, or call 1950, use its online complaint system, or go to a consumer group. The business must handle it within 15 days.
2. If that doesn't settle it, make a second complaint to your city or county consumer protection officer.
3. Then you can apply for mediation to the city or county consumer dispute mediation committee.
4. Then court. You can go to court without the earlier steps.

Medicines and pharmacies

The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA, 食品藥物管理署) sorts medicines into three classes by risk:

• Online: only 乙類成藥, clearly labelled as such, may be sold online. The TFDA says other medicines sold online (it names impotence drugs, slimming drugs and foreign medicines) are illegal: you may get fakes, you can't claim drug injury relief, and importing them in your name may break the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act. The class is on the box or leaflet, or in the TFDA's licence search.
• Filling a prescription: at the hospital or clinic that issued it, or at a pharmacy contracted with National Health Insurance (NHI). Cosmed lists stores that fill prescriptions, by city, and Costco's store finder lists warehouses with a pharmacy.
• Same medicine, other brand: unless the doctor marked a drug as not to be substituted, the pharmacist may give you another brand with the same ingredient, form and strength at the same or lower price, and must tell you.
• Long-term medicine: for a chronic condition a doctor may issue a refill prescription (慢性病連續處方箋). Each fill is up to 30 days, 90 days in total, and each later fill is collected in the 10 days before the last supply runs out. You can sign to collect it all at once when going abroad, among other cases.

→ Health insurance

Receipts

Shops give a uniform invoice (統一發票) or e-invoice, and prices of taxable goods normally include business tax. Keep the invoice for returns and exchanges. The invoices are also a lottery, drawn on the 25th of odd-numbered months. Non-nationals can claim a prize with the invoice and a passport or ARC.

Shopping guides for your city

• Hsinchu and Zhubei: Inside Hsinchu's groceries and shopping guide covers supermarkets, hypermarkets and Costco, markets, malls, and delivery.
• Taipei: Inside Taipei's shopping in Taipei (malls, markets, electronics).
• New Taipei: Inside Taipei on shopping around Banqiao Station.
• Taichung: Inside Taichung's shopping in Taichung (malls, outlets and shopping streets).
• Tainan: Inside Tainan's shopping in Tainan (the old town, department stores, the outlet, markets).
• Kaohsiung: the shopping section of Inside Kaohsiung's things to do.

For other cities, the chain store lists above show what is near you.

Questions

Can I send back something I bought online if I just don't want it?

Usually yes. Under the Consumer Protection Act (art. 19) you can cancel an online purchase within seven days after you receive it, with no reason and no cost, by sending the goods back or by written notice. Seven kinds of goods and services are exceptions, but only if the seller told you, for example unsealed software, unsealed personal hygiene products and perishable food.

Can I buy cold medicine or other medicine online in Taiwan?

Only 乙類成藥, the mildest class of over-the-counter medicine, may be sold online, and it must be clearly labelled as such. The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration says other medicines sold online are illegal and may be fake.

What do I need to collect a parcel at a convenience store?

At 7-ELEVEN, for a cash on delivery parcel you give your real name and the last three digits of your phone number and pay. For an already paid parcel you also show photo ID matching the name on the parcel. OK mart's page lists a national ID card, driving licence or NHI card for already paid parcels.

→ Money · Paying bills · Arrive and live

Sources (31)

Checked November 2026.Show

Store lists and services: PX Mart stores, 大全聯 stores, 萬家福 / 樂家康 stores, 萬家福 about and member terms, Simple Mart, Costco store finder, 喜互惠, Watsons, Cosmed stores, Cosmed prescription pharmacies, Poya, Daiso, IKEA, 7-ELEVEN Q3 2026 release, 7-ELEVEN 交貨便, 7-ELEVEN copy and fax, 7-ELEVEN bill payment, 7-ELEVEN ATMs, FamilyMart investor site, FamilyMart 店到店, FamilyMart printing, Hi-Life, OK mart, OK mart 宅轉店. Law and government: Consumer Protection Act, art. 19, 通訊交易解除權合理例外情事適用準則, Executive Yuan consumer protection site, 1950 hotline, Executive Yuan consumer protection site, complaint steps, Ministry of Health and Welfare (TFDA), medicine classes, 全民健康保險醫療辦法, uniform invoices.