Quarterly Commerce Marketing Benchmarks for Alcohol Brands
Overview and KPIs
Alcohol brands face evolving shopper behavior and increasing demands for media efficiency. Understanding when, where, and how shoppers express purchase intent across touchpoints has become essential for effective marketing activations.
MikMak’s quarterly Alcohol commerce marketing benchmarks provide a data-backed view of brand media trends, retailers displayed, and shopper intent across key global markets, helping brands contextualize performance and refine commerce-enabled activations across owned and paid channels.
This Q4 benchmark analysis is based on MikMak Shopping Index* data from October 1 to December 31, 2025.
The following proprietary MikMak Commerce KPIs were used:
- Purchase Intent Clicks
Measures high-intent shopper traffic by counting the number of times a shopper clicks through to at least one retailer during a single session within MikMak Commerce-enabled brand content. - Purchase Intent Rate
Measures the percentage of shoppers who click through to at least one retailer within MikMak Commerce-enabled brand content, signaling a strong conversion likelihood.
Q4 Alcohol Commerce Marketing Highlights
- December drives peak engagement: Shopper activity surged across all markets during the holiday season.
- Lift in conversion potential across channels: Q4 Purchase Intent Rates peaked on owned and paid channels, emphasizing the value of commerce-enabled touchpoints.
- Paid social dominates traffic: Meta led across the US, Canada, and the UK, with search supporting discovery.
- Retailer promotion and preferences vary by market: In the US, brands promoted and shoppers favored on-demand and specialty channels. The Canadians relied on provincial/government-regulated stores. In the UK, shopper traffic was split between Amazon and Grocery retailers.
- Full-funnel activation is essential: Coordinating brand sites and media captures intent from awareness through conversion.
United States
Q4 marked a period of heightened shopper intent in the US, with activity peaking in December alongside sustained digital media investment.
Conversion potential lift across channels
Purchase Intent Rates peaked in Q4, with 25.6% on brand websites and 6.5% across media, highlighting the value of commerce-enabled brand and media touchpoints during peak demand.
Paid social dominated high-intent shopper traffic
Paid social drove the majority of Purchase Intent Clicks (68.3%), followed by paid and organic search. Meta led media platforms with over 70% share, underscoring its central role in driving high-intent Alcohol shopper traffic during the holiday season.
Retailer choice reflects convenience and choice
Brands' retailer promotion and shopper intent were distributed across on-demand, specialty, and mass retailers. Instacart and Total Wine led retailer selection, followed by DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Walmart. This highlights strong promotion and shopper demand for delivery, convenience, and flexible checkout options.
Canada
Strong Q4 lift on both owned and media channels
Purchase Intent Rates rose to 39.2% on brand websites and 3.9% across media, up from 24.6% and 2.2%, respectively, during the rest of the year. The simultaneous lift across both channels highlights the importance of enabling commerce wherever shoppers engage during peak seasonal moments.
Paid social and display drove shopper traffic
Paid social accounted for over half of Purchase Intent Clicks, complemented by organic search, paid display, and paid search. Meta and Google led media platforms, with Snapchat and Pinterest contributing incremental high-intent traffic.
Provincial stores lead, delivery complements convenience
Canadians relied primarily on provincial and government-regulated liquor stores, led by LCBO, BC Liquor Stores, and SAQ, reflecting the central role of regulated retail. Delivery and on-demand platforms such as Instacart and DoorDash also contributed, signaling growing brand promotion and shopper interest for flexible fulfillment options.
United Kingdom
Q4 was the strongest quarter for UK Alcohol brands, with shopper intent peaking in December alongside increased paid social investment. In this analysis, we focus on Spirits and Liquor brands.
Peak-season surge in conversion likelihood
Purchase Intent Rates climbed to 51% on brand websites and 22% across media, particularly in December, significantly higher than average rates earlier in the year. This underscores the outsized conversion opportunity created by commerce-enabled content during the festive season.
Paid social led shopper traffic, driven by Meta
Paid social accounted for over 70% of Purchase Intent Clicks, with Meta dominating platform share and search playing a supporting role. This reflects sustained brand investment in paid social during the peak season, and underscores the role of commerce-enabled media in driving high-intent shopper traffic to retailer partners.
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Amazon and Grocery retailers led the selection
For Spirits and Liquor brands, Amazon captured the largest share of retailer clicks, followed by major UK Grocery chains. This mix reflects brand promotion and shopper reliance on Amazon for discovery and convenience, while Grocery retailers remain key for planned and repeat Alcohol purchases.
Key Takeaways
- Enable commerce across channels: Both brand websites and media deliver strong Q4 conversion potential.
- Prioritize paid social for high-intent shopper traffic: Meta dominates, complemented by search and display.
- Capture intent across the funnel: Combining owned and media touchpoints ensures engagement at every stage.
Curious to see how MikMak helps brands connect marketing with commerce and unlock first-party shopper data? Schedule a demo today.
*The MikMak Shopping Index was developed to provide a standardized set of metrics, methodology, and benchmarks to help drive brands’ business results and strategy. It is a collection of key eCommerce KPIs from hundreds of brands, over 250 channels, and more than 8,000 retailer integrations worldwide to understand consumer online shopping behavior.
