Modern Retail+ Reseach: Brands’ focus on owned channels wavers for the 2026 holiday season

According to Modern Retail+ Research, brands and retailers are showing a waning focus on their owned physical retail stores and owned e-commerce sites during the 2026 holiday season. A survey of 90 brand and retailer professionals revealed that less than half (46%) plan to use owned e-commerce sites, down from 69% in 2025. Similarly, only 60% of respondents said they plan to use owned brick-and-mortar stores, a decrease from 84% in the previous year.

Despite the importance of these channels during the holiday season, brands and retailers may be feeling less of a need to invest in them, as wholesale channels are declining and physical and multi-brand retail are disappearing. Marketing executives like Susan Grossman of Mastercard and Ari Bloom of A-Frame Brands suggest that consumers' fragmented and non-linear purchasing journey is contributing to this shift.

While Amazon remains the dominant digital marketplace, with 33% of brands and retailers planning to sell through it during the 2026 holiday season, other digital marketplaces and third-party brand stores also rank highly. However, the choice of sales channel depends on the frequency of customer purchases, with lower frequency purchases favoring marketplaces and retail, while higher frequency purchases may benefit from owned channels.

TikTok Shop emerged as the most widely planned social commerce channel, with 21% of respondents planning to use it, despite potential challenges in navigating the platform.