Wholesale buyer behavior is evolving at breakneck speed. Retail trends in 2026 are defined by digital transformations, changing the rules for apparel and footwear brands. Retailers now expect seamless, tech-driven experiences—making it critical for brands to adapt or risk losing shelf space. Let’s explore the five biggest shifts in wholesale retail expectations and how brands can stay ahead.
Retailers can no longer afford to wait for answers or access. They need to be able to run their stores on their timeline, matching the demands of their customers and community. It's critical that today’s B2B storefronts offer 24/7 access to self-service tools.
Critical tools for retailers in 2026 include real-time inventory visibility, giving buyers instant insight into what’s available, the freedom to check order history, review pricing, and the power to place re-orders whenever it suits them—day or night. They expect fast confirmations and a mobile-friendly experience that lets them manage business on their terms, not just during standard office hours.
Truthfully, if your band isn’t offering these features you’re way behind the game, and it’s time to revisit your wholesale B2B strategy.
Running a successful specialty shop means retailers have high-demand on their time and attention. They need to be focused on the health of their store - managing employees, delighting customers, building communities, and trying to grow their bottom line. It’s an all-in effort, and they don’t have time to dig for critical information from your brand. Transparency is now table stakes.
Retailers expect to see not just what’s in stock, but how products are performing once they hit the shelves. They need access to sell-through rates, performance metrics, and the kinds of consumer demand signals that help them make smarter, faster buying decisions. AI-driven replenishment and forecasting tools are becoming the norm, providing automated restock alerts and historical order analysis that take the guesswork out of inventory planning.
Retail buyers are not consumers, but their expectations are being shaped by the same digital standards. They expect speed, accuracy, and continuity across every interaction with a brand, even when the buying motion is fundamentally different.
Retailers want wholesale systems that reflect real, familiar workflows. Pre-books, at-once orders, customer-specific pricing, inventory visibility, and product data all need to live in one coherent experience, not scattered across PDFs, portals, and emails.
This is why brands are under pressure to connect wholesale more tightly to the rest of their e-commerce and ERP stack. When product information lives in one place, pricing rules live in another, and inventory lives somewhere else entirely, retailers feel the friction immediately. Missed ship dates, incorrect pricing, and forcing retail to double up on effort kills trust fast.
The new expectation is operational alignment, not channel blending. Retailers want wholesale to plug cleanly into how brands already manage products, inventory, and orders, so buyers can commit to orders with confidence, instead of chasing clarifications or reconciling data after the fact. The experience does not need to look like DTC, but it does need to work just as reliably.
From a sales perspective, this removes friction from the deal. From a merchandising perspective, it enables better forecasting and cleaner buys. From a product and ops perspective, it forces brands to treat wholesale as a first-class system, not a workaround layered on top of consumer commerce.
Personalization is no longer just a B2C trend—it’s front and center in B2B. Retailers want curated assortments and recommendations tailored to their unique needs.
Digital catalogs need to be segmented by retailer type, price level, and even past buying behavior, making every interaction feel relevant and one-to-one. The days of purely transactional selling are gone; today, it’s all about building relationship-driven partnerships that deliver real value to both sides.
Take it a step further by integrating your B2B software with a consumer demand intelligence platform like Locally. Now you can see hot products are on a per-store level, and reps will be able to suggest highly targeted assortments and orders for each retail location, based on that data. Tools like Locally empower your brand to create real, mutual success for you and every one of your retailers at an unprecedented level.
In 2026, the brands winning shelf space are those delivering curated, data-informed buying journeys that feel tailor-made for every retailer.
Values matter more than ever. For many retailers (and their customers!), caring about the planet isn’t just a fun trend anymore. It’s a prerequisite for gaining many retailers’ business, and has become a significant factor for a lot of consumers when determining the value of a product. That customers demand for a product built on values is going to trickle back to your brand.
Retailers are actively seeking out brands that align with their own—and their customers’—commitment to sustainability and ethical business practices. They’re scrutinizing supply chains, looking for transparency in sourcing, and expecting brands to prove their eco-friendly and ethical credentials. From materials to labor practices, brands must be ready to show how they’re making a positive impact.
The five shifts—speed & self-service, data transparency, a B2B ordering process that’s as smooth as the B2C experience, personalization, and sustainability—define wholesale retail expectations in 2026. Brands that adapt will thrive; those that don’t risk being left behind. Ready to future-proof your wholesale strategy? Start embracing these retail trends now.