Owned Channel Plans Slip for 2026 as Marketplaces Gain Ground

By Daniel Okafor

Only 46% of brand and retailer professionals plan to use owned e-commerce sites during the 2026 holidays, down from 69% in 2025, according to Glossy+ Research.

Owned channels are brand- or retailer-controlled stores and websites. Glossy+ found that 60% of respondents plan to use owned brick-and-mortar stores, down from 84% in 2025. Yet 67% say those stores grow more important during holidays, and 49% say the same of owned e-commerce sites.

The findings appear in an excerpt from Glossy+ Research’s report, The 2026 guide to holiday marketing strategies, including A-Frame Brands, Mastercard and Ritual. The report draws on a survey of 90 brand and retailer professionals and individual interviews with marketing executives to identify which commerce channels dominate marketers’ holiday strategies.

Why planned owned-channel use is falling

Susan Grossman, evp of consumer acquisition and engagement services at Mastercard, said in an email that fragmented buying journeys, not weaker commitment to owned channels, explain marketers’ broader channel allocations.

“Today’s holiday shopper might discover a product through a creator, compare options on a retailer’s site, read reviews, receive an offer in a banking app, and ultimately purchase somewhere else entirely,” Grossman said. “The journey is increasingly fragmented and non-linear. As a result, marketers are investing less in any single channel and more in creating connected experiences across channels.”

Ari Bloom, founder and CEO of brand incubator A-Frame Brands, said brands may spend less on owned spaces because they take those channels and especially physical stores for granted. His diagnosis included declining wholesale channels and multi-brand retail (stores carrying several brands), apart from mass retail.

“Brands take their own channels and especially physical stores for granted,” Bloom said. “We see that repeatedly as the pendulum shifts back to controlled environments, but the reality is that wholesale channels are dying.

“Physical and multi-brand retail, except for mass, is going away. Very few department stores are healthy enough to survive this year, and a lot have gone out of business.”

The 2026 channel hierarchy

Glossy+ found this 2026 sales-channel hierarchy:

• No. 1: Owned physical retail stores.
• No. 2: Owned e-commerce sites.
• No. 3 (tie): Third-party brand stores and Amazon.

Owned stores and sites have held the top two positions since 2024, according to Glossy+.

Glossy+ found that Amazon remained the dominant digital marketplace, a platform hosting products from multiple sellers, while other marketplaces drew lower planned adoption and seasonal importance among surveyed brands and retailers.

Thirty-three percent of surveyed brands and retailers said their company plans to sell through Amazon during the 2026 holiday season. Thirty-eight percent said Amazon grows more important to their sales during the holidays.

Twenty-nine percent said their company plans to sell through other digital marketplaces. Twenty-six percent said other digital channels grow more important during the holidays.

What does this change for holiday marketers?

The report cautions that Amazon’s dominance does not mean every brand should prioritize it or other digital marketplaces, because the right channel depends largely on how often customers purchase.

Laura Brodie, chief growth officer at supplement company Ritual, framed the choice around purchase frequency.

“It depends almost entirely on purchase frequency. If you’re thinking about low-frequency one-time purchase, the shift toward marketplaces and retail makes a ton of sense because the digital foot traffic is there,” Brodie said. “You don’t need to pay to drive [consumers] to the destination.”

Brodie contrasted customer lifetime value (the revenue generated by a retained customer over time) with the cost of acquiring a new customer.

“If purchase frequency is high, the story shifts a little bit because the value of retaining that customer in an owned channel and driving the lifetime value can outweigh the cost of customer acquisition,” she added.

“For one-time purchases, or categories that have search demand within marketplaces and retail channels, that shift makes a lot of sense. For brands where purchasing is at a higher frequency, capturing that within owned e-commerce or retail experiences can make a lot of sense. The cost of acquisition spikes during holidays, so it’s really about understanding that trade-off.”

TikTok Shop raises the creator hurdle

Glossy+ tracked TikTok Shop for the first time as a standalone social commerce channel, meaning a channel that facilitates sales through social platforms. Twenty-one percent of respondents said their company plans to use TikTok Shop during the 2026 holiday season, compared with just 6% for another social commerce platform.

TikTok Shop ranked as the most widely planned social commerce channel. Ari Bloom cautioned that the platform relies heavily on creator-led content rather than traditional brand storefronts, which can complicate work for established brands.

“TikTok Shop is going to be very content creator-heavy and it’s harder for brands to do it unless they’re really good at working with those content creators,” Bloom said.

“It’s hard for brand stores to do it on their own on TikTok. It’s not set up for it, and it’s not a platform that natively works well with established brands. Creator brands, on the other hand, are going to be fantastic there.”

Brodie’s purchase-frequency guidance and Bloom’s creator warning narrow the 2026 planning task to three decisions: channel fit by purchase frequency, retention economics for repeat buyers, and creator capability for TikTok Shop.