As Ecommerce Hits a Record 17.1% of US Retail, Twin Two Rethinks How Brands Pay to Sell Online
MIAMI, FLORIDA, USA, November 13, 2026 –
Online sales are growing almost twice as fast as retail overall. For brands without an ecommerce team, the cost of catching up is the real barrier.
Ecommerce now accounts for a record 17.1 percent of all U.S. retail sales, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and Miami-based Twin Two is offering brands a way to grow into that market without the fixed costs that usually come first. The ecommerce operating company runs brands’ websites and marketplaces on a sales-based fee, with no monthly management retainer.
The Census Bureau’s latest quarterly report put U.S. retail ecommerce sales at $340.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026, seasonally adjusted. That was 12.2 percent higher than a year earlier, while total retail sales grew 6.7 percent over the same period. Figures for the third quarter are scheduled for release on November 19.
The numbers point to a steady shift in where American consumers shop. That shift raises the stakes for companies that have built strong businesses through stores, distributors and wholesale accounts but still have only a small presence online.
The Cost of Catching Up
For many of those companies, Twin Two argues, the barrier is not the product but the operation behind it. Selling across a brand’s own website and marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart and TikTok Shop involves listings, content, advertising, pricing, promotions, customer service, returns and the coordination of inventory and shipping, all running at once.
Brands have usually covered that work by hiring several agencies or building an internal team. Both approaches tend to require significant spending before a new channel has shown results. Twin Two founder Victor Elmann saw that pattern during two decades in retail, brand and agency roles. According to the company, agency fees could continue regardless of how a brand performed, while building a team internally meant recruiting people, buying software and connecting channels before the business had proved itself.
Twin Two’s answer is a single operating partner that handles the daily work across the brand’s store and marketplaces and earns a management fee based on the sales those channels generate. The company does not charge a monthly retainer, base fee or minimum management fee. “We only get paid when you sell,” is how it describes the arrangement.
That does not remove the costs of selling. Brands still carry the everyday expenses of inventory, ad spend, shipping, marketplace fees and fulfillment, and because Twin Two’s compensation is tied to sales rather than profit, brands remain responsible for watching their own margins. Sales-based ecommerce services are also offered by other firms, and the model is one of several options available to brands.
The approach is aimed at established consumer brands, manufacturers, distributors and retailers that want to grow online without first building a full in-house department. With ecommerce taking a larger share of retail spending each quarter, the question of how to fund that growth is becoming harder for those companies to put off.
About Twin Two
Twin Two is a Miami-based ecommerce operating company founded by Victor Elmann. It manages brands’ direct-to-consumer websites and online marketplaces, including Amazon, Walmart, Target Plus, Best Buy, eBay and TikTok Shop, covering listings, content, advertising, pricing, promotions, customer support and order coordination. Twin Two’s management fee is based on sales, with no monthly management retainer, and the company has a presence in the United States and Japan. More information is available at twintwo.com.
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