Resolution 2026: Stop Playing Favorites with Your Channels

Happy New Year. By now, the gym memberships are being utilized at peak capacity, and the resolutions to "eat more kale" are already starting to wobble. In the corporate world, our resolutions usually sound a bit more professional but are often equally doomed: "We’ll be more efficient," "We’ll leverage the latest tech," or my personal favorite, "We’ll finally fix the data."

But for 2026, I have a resolution for you that is actually worth keeping, though it might make your VP of Sales and your E-commerce Director have a very awkward lunch together.

The Resolution: Stop playing favorites with your channels.

The Great Wall of Commerce

For a decade, we’ve operated under a "Church and State" model. On one side, we have the Wholesale Traditionalists, who treat the dealer network like a protected species, terrified that a single "Buy Now" button on the brand website will cause a retail uprising. On the other side, we have the DTC Purists, who view retailers as "middlemen" who steal margin and hide customer data.

If you are a wholesale-heavy brand, your resolution is usually: "Protect the retailers at all costs (even if it stunts our growth)."

If you are a DTC brand, it’s: "Own the customer at all costs (even if it kills our profitability)."

In 2026, both of these resolutions are wrong. They are defensive. They are based on a world where the customer shops in a straight line. Newsflash: they don't.

The Customer Doesn’t Care About Your Org Chart

Here is the uncomfortable truth: Your customer doesn't know (and certainly doesn't care) that your wholesale team and your web team don't talk to each other. They don't see "channels." They see a brand.

If they find your product on Instagram, they want it. If they want to touch it before they buy it, they look for a store. If that store doesn't have their size, but your warehouse does, they expect you to bridge that gap.

When we "protect" a retailer by refusing to sell our full product line online, we aren't actually helping the retailer; we’re just helping Amazon or a more agile competitor fill the void. Conversely, when a DTC brand ignores the local shop down the street, they are leaving their most powerful fulfillment tool on the table. In 2026, "selling alone" isn't a strategy; it's a slow leak in your balance sheet.

The 2026 "Big Bet": Collaborative Commerce

So, here is the resolution I’m proposing for 2026: Stop trying to choose between Wholesale and DTC, and start making them work for each other.

• For the Wholesale-First Brand: Your resolution is to stop viewing your website as a competitor to your dealers. Instead, treat it as their lead generation engine. If a customer lands on your site, use that traffic to fulfill orders through your local retailers. You get the sale, the retailer gets the inventory movement and foot traffic, and the customer gets the product today.
• For the DTC Brand: Your resolution is to realize that shipping every single box from a central warehouse is the "Acquisition Tax" that is killing your growth. Your "Big Bet" for 2026 is finding physical partners who can act as local hubs for your brand, turning a high shipping cost into a high-loyalty local experience.

The "Referee" You Actually Need: Distributed Order Management

I know what you're thinking. "That sounds great on a cocktail napkin, but the logistics are a nightmare." Many CEOs are waiting for a "magical AI" to solve their messy inventory problems. But let’s be honest: you don't need a chatbot to write poems; you need a Referee. You need a system that can look at an incoming order and instantly decide: "This should be fulfilled by the dealer in Denver because they have aging inventory, it’s two miles from the customer, and it saves $14 in shipping."

This isn't science fiction; it's Distributed Order Management (DOM).

A robust DOM engine is the glue that allows you to stop playing favorites. It removes the human bias and the spreadsheet-induced migraines. It allows your website to act as a storefront for every piece of inventory sitting on a shelf in North America, whether that shelf is in your warehouse or a mom-and-pop shop in Des Moines. When the "referee" handles the logic of fulfillment, the "Wholesale vs. DTC" argument simply evaporates. You’re finally just... selling.

The Bottom Line: Be Everywhere, Efficiently

If you’re a brand that hasn't sold your full line online because you’re afraid of "channel conflict," make 2026 the year you stop being afraid. And if you’re a DTC brand that thinks you don't need a physical presence, make 2026 the year you get over your ego.

The winners of 2026 won't be the ones with the best website or the biggest retail footprint. They will be the ones who realized that the "Retail Pendulum" has stopped swinging. It’s about being Everywhere, Efficiently.

A Final Thought for the New Year

At Quivers, we’ve spent years building the "referee" that makes this possible. Our Distributed Order Management engine was designed specifically to end the tug-of-war between your digital goals and your retail partners. Whether you sell 10% or 100% of your catalog online, our mission is to ensure that every order finds its most logical, profitable path to the consumer.

Let’s stop protecting silos and start moving product. If you’re ready to make Collaborative Commerce your only resolution this year, we’re ready to help you execute it.

Happy 2026. Let's get to work.