There are certainly some brands that are deeply embedded with their retail partners, developing exclusive products in partnership and engaging in cooperative marketing. But given the vast number of retail vendors out there, I would submit that the number of brands in such a relationship is a small percentage of the total.
With the rise of the internet since I started with vendor compliance in 1993, the ability for a brand to go direct-to-consumer (DTC or D2C) has enabled some consumer product companies to break from selling to retail and forge a path of their own, even if with a little help from a behemoth online marketplace.
