The damage gray-market sellers do on Coupang, in data, and how to respond

Coupang ranks first among the top 10 mobile shopping apps, with an 82% share. For brands, it isn’t just a sales channel. It’s the key platform for driving sales and reaching shoppers. And the more important a channel is, the more often gray-market (unauthorized) sales and unauthorized sellers show up there.

Using data from brand practitioners, this post looks at how often gray-market sales happen, how much revenue they really cost, and how well enforcement works.

How common are gray-market sales?

When we asked 199 brand managers, “How often do you find gray-market listings that violate your pricing policy?”, 81.7% said they find them regularly. Some companies even said they find them every day (9.71%). Gray-market distribution isn’t an occasional exception. It’s a constant, recurring challenge.

On Coupang, a particular problem is gray-market sellers taking the Item Winner spot. In our survey, 69% of respondents said gray-market sellers had taken the Item Winner spot on up to half of their products. Item Winner isn’t just top placement. It directly affects search priority, consumer trust and the virtuous cycle of sales, which makes the damage even more serious.

How big is the financial damage?

Gray-market sales lead straight to visible lost revenue. According to MarqVision’s E-commerce Growth Strategy Report, 64% of brands estimate a loss of 10–30% in PPM (Pure Product Margin), and 49.14% say they lose 5–10% of annual revenue. Add the brands losing more than 10%, and 79% of all brands are suffering serious damage.

For small and medium-sized businesses, the damage is far more severe. Large companies can cushion the blow with diverse sales channels and marketing resources, but for smaller brands that depend heavily on Coupang, lost revenue is a question of survival online. Gray-market sales can go beyond short-term losses to hold back a brand’s growth for the long term.

Does fighting the gray market actually work?

Many brands wonder, “Does fighting the gray market actually make a difference?” The survey points to a positive answer. Brands that enforced against gray-market sellers over the past 12 months recovered meaningful revenue, from modest to substantial amounts.

Specifically, 31% recovered KRW 15 million to 75 million, and 25% recovered KRW 75 million to 375 million. More than half saw real recovery: fighting the gray market isn’t just a cost but a strategic investment in protecting revenue.

Challenges remain, though. More than 66% of respondents said significant losses remain, and only 27% felt they had recovered most of their losses. In other words, enforcement works, but fully stopping or recovering the damage is still hard.

What’s an effective strategy against the gray market?

Gray-market sales undermine a brand’s pricing policy and directly affect revenue on key channels. That’s why systematic monitoring and fast enforcement are key. MarqVision’s E-commerce Growth Strategy Report details what other brands actually chose, from monitoring methods to response strategies.

Build a strategy to protect your brand now, before the damage from gray-market sales grows.