A recent resurgence of unauthorized product listings on Coupang's marketplace has drawn renewed attention from legitimate sellers. The practice, commonly referred to as "listing hijacking," appears to be gaining traction again, particularly among cross-border stores, creating significant challenges for compliant merchants.
This development raises important questions: Given that most cross-border stores lack self-fulfillment permissions, how are these unauthorized sellers managing to list products?
Investigations reveal that some sellers are exploiting a loophole in Coupang's product listing mechanism. The platform automatically merges similar product listings, and certain stores without fulfillment authorization have been copying other sellers' product titles, main images, and detailed descriptions verbatim. These duplicate listings then await automatic merging by the platform's system.
While this method might appear straightforward, it carries substantial risks. First, such practices frequently trigger intellectual property infringement claims, which can lead to store suspensions. Second, Coupang has been intensifying its monitoring and enforcement against these unauthorized listings, making this "gray area" strategy increasingly unsustainable.
Industry sources indicate that some new sellers have been purchasing multiple store accounts in attempts to quickly generate sales through these methods. However, numerous cases have shown that such stores often face permanent suspension due to policy violations, resulting in significant financial losses.
The platform has issued warnings to sellers against attempting these practices, emphasizing the importance of legitimate operations. Unauthorized listings not only harm other merchants' businesses but also expose the offending sellers to considerable operational risks.
For sellers committed to building reputable brands, experts recommend proactively registering trademarks and protecting intellectual property rights as essential components of long-term business strategy.
Coupang has stated its commitment to continuously improving its systems to combat policy violations, aiming to maintain a fair and healthy marketplace environment. The company encourages all sellers to comply with platform policies and engage in ethical business practices to collectively preserve marketplace integrity.