Owned Channel Focus Slips for 2026 Holiday Season

Only 46% of brands and retailers plan to use their owned e-commerce sites during the 2026 holiday season, down sharply from 69% in 2025, according to Modern Retail+ Research's report "The 2026 guide to holiday marketing strategies." The survey of 90 brand and retailer professionals found a parallel drop for physical retail: 60% of respondents plan to use owned brick-and-mortar stores this holiday season, down from 84% a year ago.

The declines come despite marketers' own admission that owned channels matter more during the holidays. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said owned physical stores grow more important during the holiday season, and 49% said the same of owned e-commerce sites.

Why is investment in owned channels falling?

Ari Bloom, founder and CEO of brand incubator A-Frame Brands, said brands may simply feel less need to spend on spaces they control.

"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."

Susan Grossman, evp of consumer acquisition and engagement services at Mastercard, sees the shift differently. She said in an email that marketers are not becoming less invested in owned channels. The challenge, she argued, is that consumers no longer follow a predictable path to purchase.

"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."

Which channels still lead holiday sales?

Owned physical retail stores and owned e-commerce sites remain the No. 1 and No. 2 most used sales channels during the holiday season — the same positions they have held since 2024. Third-party brand stores and Amazon tied for the No. 3 spot.

Amazon remains the dominant digital marketplace:

• 33% of brands and retailers plan to sell through Amazon during the 2026 holiday season.
• 38% of marketers said Amazon grows more important to their sales during the holidays.
• 29% plan to sell through other digital marketplaces.
• 26% said other digital channels grow more important to their sales during the holidays.

Dominance on Amazon does not mean every brand should prioritize it, however. Laura Brodie, chief growth officer at supplement company Ritual, said the right channel depends on how often customers buy.

"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."

For high-frequency brands, the math changes, she added. "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," Brodie said. "The cost of acquisition spikes during holidays, so it's really about understanding that trade-off."

Is TikTok Shop the breakout social channel?

Modern Retail's survey tracked TikTok Shop as a standalone sales channel for the first time this year. It emerged as the most widely planned social commerce channel: 21% of respondents said their company plans to use TikTok Shop during the 2026 holiday season, compared with just 6% who plan to use another social commerce platform.

Bloom cautioned that the platform favors creator-led content over traditional brand storefronts. "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."

The data points to a holiday season where owned channels still lead usage rankings but command a shrinking share of planned investment, pushing marketers to weigh acquisition costs, purchase frequency and creator partnerships across a fragmented shopping journey.