Gray-market sales threaten your pricing and revenue: why you need an AI-based strategy

Coupang and other major e-commerce platforms now dominate the consumer purchase journey. With convenience-first services such as early-morning delivery, easy checkout and simple price comparison, many shoppers start and finish everything on Coupang, from searching to buying.

In particular, Coupang runs a dynamic pricing algorithm built around showing the lowest price, so the cheapest offer for the same product appears at the top. In this environment, securing price competitiveness on the platform is no longer optional for brands. It’s a survival strategy.

But gray-market (unauthorized) sales by sellers outside official distribution directly threaten that pricing strategy. Low-price reselling that ignores set pricing policies is recognized as the “lowest price” on Coupang and shown at the top, or even drags down the official store’s price.

As a result, price distortion leads not only to lower sales but to a breakdown in distribution order, weaker trust among partners and, ultimately, weaker market competitiveness for the brand as a whole. Gray-market sales are more than a distribution channel problem. They’re a business risk that threatens the brand’s entire growth. Even now, control of the online market is shifting to algorithms and unauthorized sellers.

In our previous post, we covered how to monitor gray-market sales manually. This post looks at strategies for using AI to monitor more efficiently and win back revenue and price competitiveness.

AI-based gray-market monitoring and response

Precise AI detection of increasingly complex unauthorized seller patterns

Unauthorized sellers operate in ever more sophisticated ways, combining different keywords in product names or showing official certification phrases only on product detail pages. That makes it very hard and inefficient to detect and track every pattern by hand.

To overcome this, adopting AI-based unauthorized sales detection is essential. MarqVision’s AI learns from vast amounts of online marketplace data to automatically identify the keywords black-market resellers often use and unauthorized listings. It also collects and analyzes search results from major marketplaces in real time, automatically comparing product page copy, seller information, final consumer prices, seller risk and more. On top of that, Marq AI classifies official and unauthorized sellers and even suggests how to manage official sellers.

See the difference between manual gray-market detection and AI-based automated monitoring in the table below.

Based on 90 gray-market listings

Manual methods take a long time and cover a limited range, so many cases slip through. AI-based gray-market monitoring, by contrast, cuts time and resources dramatically while detecting precisely, without gaps. Because it learns different selling methods and keyword combinations on its own, it keeps shrinking blind spots, letting brands build a more strategic gray-market response.

Automating gray-market response: from reporting to action, end to end

In gray-market response, fast and effective action matters as much as detection. MarqVision uses AI to automate the response process for gray-market sellers and black-market resellers, cutting the resources it takes and maximizing efficiency.

Gray-market sales aren’t just price violations. They can fall under 16 legal grounds in total, including consumer protection law, e-commerce law and copyright law. With AI trained on these complex regulations and IP experts, MarqVision classifies infringement types in advance and automatically recommends the best action for each.

AI also drafts reports automatically and files them in the format each marketplace requires, and you can follow overall progress in real time in the dashboard. Companies can roll out a consistent response quickly, with no manual work.

By automating response this way, companies can minimize internal resources while building a more strategic, sustained response to the many gray-market problems that arise across countless platforms.

How MarqVision helped brands win back price competitiveness on Coupang

MarqVision’s AI-based gray-market solution doesn’t stop at detection. It strengthens competitiveness through active, effective action against gray-market sales, helping companies hold their market position while restoring brand trust.

See in the video below how MarqVision helped strengthen price competitiveness on Coupang.

Hanway Trading strengthened its official distribution and brand trust with a gray-market solution

At Hanway Trading, communication with our customers comes first, and we hold quality and trust above all else. Recently, though, a growing number of unauthorized sellers has put unapproved products of uncertain origin and quality into circulation, threatening our credibility as a company. So we brought in MarqVision to identify unofficial sellers quickly and act on them decisively. This not only protects our official distribution channels; it also raises trust in the Villeroy & Boch brand and further strengthens our position as its exclusive importer.
— Hanway Trading

Tackling gray-market sales is no longer optional. It’s a strategic investment in a brand’s survival. Price competitiveness on Coupang and other major marketplaces directly affects purchase decisions. Yet gray-market sales are distorting prices, breaking down distribution order and even threatening brand trust.

Manual work can no longer effectively control fast-spreading gray-market sales. It’s time to use AI to detect them automatically and respond quickly. MarqVision’s AI solution goes beyond the limits of manual response, giving brands a practical way to protect their price competitiveness and win back revenue.

Start 7 days of free monitoring now to see which resellers are threatening your brand’s pricing policy.