67% of Brands Are Adding Sales Channels. Most Aren't Ready for What That Does to Fulfillment.

Two-thirds of brands are actively building B2B and retail distribution capabilities right now, according to a recent Radial research report on omnichannel commerce. Fifty-six percent already operate some kind of marketplace-fulfilled channel. On paper, that looks like healthy, deliberate expansion. In practice, the same data shows a lot of that growth is running ahead of the operational systems needed to actually support it, and the gap shows up first in inventory, then in chargebacks, then in customers who quietly stop buying.

The report, based on Radial brand and consumer surveys from 2025 and 2026, lays out where that gap is widest and what separates the brands scaling channels successfully from the ones accumulating compliance penalties and inventory chaos along the way.

Every channel you add is another place inventory data can fall out of sync, and this piece goes through where that's actually happening and what to fix first.

Channel Expansion Is No Longer Optional, and Revenue Already Depends On It

The numbers on how far this shift has already gone are worth sitting with. Eighty percent of brands surveyed report that between 25% and 75% of their total revenue now comes from B2B channels, not their own direct-to-consumer storefront. Fifty-three percent name building marketplace presence as their number one strategic priority over the next two years. This isn't a hedge against DTC softness, it's become a core part of how modern brands generate revenue.

Consumer behavior backs up why. Radial's April 2026 consumer survey found online marketplaces were the only channel with strongly positive momentum, 37.7% of shoppers said they're purchasing from marketplaces more often than a year ago, against just 12.3% buying less often, a net swing of +25.4%. Brand websites and physical stores both showed negative net momentum over the same period. Shoppers are voting with their behavior, and the vote favors marketplaces.

The Trust Payoff Is Real, But So Is the Execution Risk

There's a genuine upside to being present across more channels beyond raw revenue. Thirty-nine percent of shoppers said they trust a brand more when it's widely available across marketplaces and retailer websites, rising to 56% among Gen Z shoppers specifically. Being visible in more places doesn't just capture more transactions, it actively builds credibility with younger buyers in particular.

But the same report is blunt about how thin the margin for error is once you're operating across channels. Over half of shoppers say they'll stop buying from a brand immediately after being charged for expedited shipping that didn't actually arrive faster. Thirty-seven percent will drop a brand after an order gets canceled post-checkout. Twenty-nine percent will leave after tracking simply stops mid-delivery. These aren't slow-building frustrations, they're one-strike issues for a meaningful share of your customer base, and they get more likely to happen, not less, as you add more channels and more places for something to break.

Where the Data Shows Channels Actually Breaking Down

The report's channel-by-channel breakdown is specific about where things go wrong. Walmart's marketplace struggled most with stockouts and orders shown as available and then canceled. Amazon's top issue was inconsistent pricing for the same product across listings, at 17%. TikTok Shop struggled with delivery reliability and inconsistent shipping speeds, on top of the lowest adoption of any channel tested (61% of shoppers hadn't purchased there at all). AI shopping platforms are still early, only 5% of shoppers currently start a shopping journey with an AI tool, but Radial's own framing treats that as a near-term opportunity window rather than something to ignore.

Every one of those failure points traces back to the same root cause: inventory and order data that isn't synchronized cleanly across channels in real time. A stockout that shows as available, a price that's inconsistent between listings, a shipment that goes dark mid-transit, these are integration failures wearing a customer-experience costume.

The Operational Reality Behind the Growth Numbers

Thirty-five percent of brands surveyed report struggling with inventory visibility, allocation, and synchronization across channels, and that number climbs to 50% among brands in the $50 million to $100 million revenue range, precisely the growth stage where channel expansion accelerates fastest. Thirty-four percent struggle with meeting retailer compliance or routing guide requirements, a problem that translates directly into chargebacks that erode margin on top of the operational headache. Twenty-eight percent cite managing returns and reverse logistics as a top challenge.

On the KPI side, the priorities brands are actually tracking make the stakes clear. Forty-two percent rank on-time, in-full (OTIF) delivery rate as their top metric, since retail partners typically enforce strict OTIF compliance with real financial penalties attached. Twenty-eight percent track chargeback percentage and dollar amount directly, rising to 43% among health and wellness brands specifically. Inventory accuracy comes in third at 25% overall, growing in importance as revenue scales, reaching 30% among brands in the $750 million to $1 billion range.

What Brands Actually Need From Their Fulfillment Infrastructure

When Radial asked retailers what they most needed from a logistics partner to expand successfully, "Enhanced Technology and Automation" ranked as the single most important category, specifically wide-spanning system integrations, real-time inventory tracking, and AI-backed analytics. Operational efficiency, customer support quality, transparent pricing, and unified 3PL services across both DTC and B2B rounded out the list.

As Shauna Bowen, EVP at Radial, put it in the report: "These brands will need the right blend of technology and operational know-how to be present on the right channels for their customers while successfully protecting their bottom line. That's where a trusted partner can really accelerate the process." The pattern across the whole report supports that framing directly: the brands succeeding at omnichannel expansion aren't the ones moving fastest into new channels, they're the ones whose inventory, order, and integration systems can actually keep pace with that expansion.

On Magento specifically, that integration work, ERP, 3PL, and inventory sync across every channel, is exactly what our Magento development team builds.

If you're further along and the gap is specifically B2B account, pricing, and ordering logic, our Magento B2B guide covers that ground in more depth.

• Confirm real-time inventory sync exists across every channel you sell on, not just your own storefront, before adding a new marketplace
• Map your current OTIF and chargeback performance by retail partner, since that data usually already exists but isn't being reviewed as a leading indicator
• Audit pricing consistency across all channels regularly, inconsistent pricing was the top-cited issue on Amazon specifically in this data
• Build a returns and reverse logistics process designed for multi-channel volume before scaling, not after chargebacks and margin erosion force the issue
• Prioritize integration technology (ERP, PIM, inventory, fulfillment) as the actual bottleneck to channel expansion, not a back-office afterthought to the go-to-market plan

The Takeaway

The opportunity in this data is real: marketplaces are growing, omnichannel presence builds trust, and B2B channels already account for a majority of revenue at most brands surveyed. But the same data is equally clear that the brands losing ground aren't losing it on strategy, they're losing it on synchronization: inventory that doesn't match reality, pricing that isn't consistent, and compliance requirements that generate chargebacks instead of getting met. Channel expansion and fulfillment infrastructure have to scale together, and right now, for a lot of brands, they aren't.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scaling Into New B2B and Marketplace Channels Faster Than Your Fulfillment Stack Can Keep Up?

SnapTec builds the ERP, inventory, and 3PL integrations that keep Magento and Shopify B2B operations synchronized across every channel you sell on, so growth doesn't outrun your operations. Talk to our B2B team →