China’s Gray Market Is Dominating Luxury Brands’ Online Sales

(Bloomberg) — China’s gray market — where brand new, authentic products are sold at steep discounts — is increasingly dwarfing some global luxury giants’ official sales channels in the country’s dominant e-commerce space, according to a new report.

For high-end outdoor wear labels Moncler and Canada Goose, sales for some of their most popular products were 2.5 to 15 times higher on Dewu — China’s largest gray market platform — than in their official stores on e-commerce platform Tmall during the peak shopping season from October to March, data consultancy Re-Hub said in a report released Tuesday.