The Old Model
For decades, cross-border sourcing of Korean brands depended on a thin layer of trading companies, trade shows, and personal networks. Information asymmetry was the moat.
What Changed
Three forces collapsed the old moat simultaneously:
- Transaction-grade data: open commerce signals now reveal real sell-through.
- AI scoring: models such as PSS v4.0 turn thousands of weak signals into a single decision-ready score.
- Agentic execution: autonomous agents perform multi-step sourcing in hours, not months.
Implications
- Brand Partners: being "data-discoverable" now matters more than having a showroom.
- Channel Partners: speed of validated sourcing becomes a competitive KPI.
- Platforms: neutrality and auditability replace gatekeeping as the winning posture.
MARTMART Position
MARTMART operates as the matching layer — neutral, data-native, with a published 3-stage SLA. The goal is not to replace human judgment; it is to make the first 72 hours deterministic.