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Quarterly Commerce Marketing Benchmarks for Food and Beverage Brands

Quarterly Commerce Marketing Benchmarks for Food & Beverage Brands

Overview and KPIs

Food and Beverage brands operate in a highly competitive, always-on category where shoppers frequently move between inspiration, research, and purchase across digital touchpoints. Understanding when, where, and how shoppers express purchase intent is critical to driving conversion and maximizing return on media investment.

MikMak’s quarterly Food and Beverage commerce marketing benchmarks provide a data-backed view of paid and organic brand media trends, retailers displayed, and shopper intent across key global markets, helping brands contextualize performance and optimize 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 Food and Beverage Commerce Marketing Highlights

  • Seasonality drives demand, with late summer through Q4 consistently delivering strong shopper engagement across markets.
  • Media drives new shopper traffic, while brand websites outperform in conversion likelihood, highlighting the value of enabling purchase across multiple touchpoints.
  • Paid social and search dominate traffic, though channel mix varies significantly by market.
  • Full-funnel commerce activation remains essential to capture frequent, repeat Food and Beverage purchase behavior.

United States

Food and Beverage shopper intent in the US built steadily throughout the year, peaking during the summer and remaining elevated through Q4 as brands maintained strong media investment.

FB25-PIC Month US

Strong conversion potential on brand websites

Purchase Intent Rates reached 25.8% on brand websites versus 2.9% across media, reflecting the highly qualified nature of owned-site audiences. 

While fewer shoppers reach brand websites, commerce-enabled media plays a critical role earlier in the journey, capturing intent at scale, driving incremental conversion, and building more efficient first-party audiences.

Average Purchase Intent Rate - Food &amp; Beverage - US - Q4 2025

Paid social and search drive shopper traffic

Paid social led commerce traffic generation, followed closely by organic and paid search. Google and Meta accounted for the majority of media-driven Purchase Intent Clicks, with TikTok providing incremental discovery.

Top 5 Traffic Sources and Media Platforms by Share of Purchase Intent Clicks

Mass retailers dominate the selection

Walmart captured the largest share of retailer clicks, followed by Target and Amazon. Grocery delivery platforms also played a meaningful role, reflecting increased brand promotion and shopper preference for flexible fulfillment options.

FB25-Retailers US v3

 

Canada

While March and August saw earlier seasonal spikes, Q4 Food and Beverage shopper intent in Canada peaked in October and remained stable through year-end, underscoring consistent late-year purchase behavior.

FB25-PIC Month CA v2

Media drives shopper traffic, brand websites lead conversion likelihood

Purchase Intent Rates averaged 16.8% on brand websites versus 1.1% across media, reflecting the highly qualified nature of owned-site audiences. 

Media, however, reaches a much larger audience and offers an opportunity to capture demand earlier. Commerce-enabled campaigns across social, search, and other media channels drive incremental conversion and help build first-party audiences.

Average Purchase Intent Rate Food &amp; Beverage - Canada - Q4 2025

 

Paid social and search dominate

Paid social drove the largest share of Purchase Intent Clicks, with organic and paid search playing critical supporting roles. Google and Meta led media platforms.

FB25-Traffic-Media CA (1)

Walmart leads, delivery platforms gain traction 

Walmart led Q4 Purchase Intent Clicks, with Metro and Real Canadian Superstore supporting Grocery demand. Delivery platforms Instacart and Voilà highlight increased brand promotion and shopper preference for flexible fulfillment options.

FB25-Retailers CA v2

 

United Kingdom

UK Food and Beverage shopper intent showed steady growth throughout the year, with Q4 maintaining elevated activity.

FB25-PIC Month UK v2

Media drives shopper traffic, brand websites lead conversion likelihood

In Q4, Purchase Intent Rates were much higher on brand websites than on media, reflecting that owned channels convert more qualified, lower-funnel shoppers. 

Media has likely been used primarily to drive awareness and direct shoppers to brand sites rather than enable direct checkout. Expanding commerce-enabled purchase paths across both media and owned channels can capture high-intent demand earlier and build more efficient first-party audiences.

Average Purchase Intent Rate Food &amp; Beverage - UK - Q4 2025

Search leads intent, social expands reach

Google led media-driven Purchase Intent Clicks in the UK, while TikTok and Meta contributed meaningful discovery and consideration traffic. This mix highlights a balanced reliance on search for active intent and social platforms for incremental reach.

FB25-Media UK v2

Retailer mix reflects Grocery dominance

Grocery chains led Q4 retailer activity, with Tesco capturing the largest share of Purchase Intent Clicks, followed by Sainsbury’s and Asda. Delivery services like Deliveroo contributed additional convenience-driven intent.

Ocado fell from 4th place in Q3 to 6th in Q4, yet delivered a comparable share of Purchase Intent Clicks to Morrisons, while Co-op ranked 7th. These fluctuations are expected. Retailer performance is influenced by factors such as product availability at a given time, the presence of brand-led promotional activity, and retailer placement within commerce-enabled brand content.

This may explain why some large Grocery chains, like Aldi and Lidl, did not appear in MikMak's top retailer ranking this quarter.

FB25-Retailers uk v2

France

France Food and Beverage shopper intent remained steady throughout the year, with Q4 sustaining consistent activity rather than a sharp seasonal spike. This reflects habitual, Grocery-driven purchase behavior supported by always-on digital discovery.

FB25-PIC Month FR v2

Media drives shopper traffic, brand websites lead conversion likelihood

Purchase Intent Rates averaged 27.8% on brand websites compared to 1.8% across media in Q4. This indicates that French Food and Beverage brands rely strongly on owned digital experiences to convert demand, while media primarily supports discovery and research rather than direct checkout.

Expanding commerce-enabled purchase paths within media placements represents a meaningful opportunity to capture high-intent shoppers earlier and improve the efficiency of downstream conversion.

Average Purchase Intent Rate Food &amp; Beverage - France - Q4 2025

Search dominates media-driven intent

Search overwhelmingly drove media-based Purchase Intent Clicks in France, with Google capturing the vast majority of activity. Social platforms played a limited role, likely reflecting brands’ strategy of directing shoppers from social media to brand websites rather than enabling direct checkout via shoppable media. 

Expanding commerce-enabled paths within social could unlock significant growth for Food and Beverage brands in France.

FB25-Media FR v3

Retailer mix reflects national Grocery chains

National Grocery retailers led Food and Beverage commerce activity in Q4, with Carrefour and Intermarché capturing the largest share of Purchase Intent Clicks.

Drive- and pickup-focused formats, such as E.Leclerc Drive, also played an important role, highlighting brand promotion and shopper demand for flexible fulfillment options.

FB25-Retailers FR v2

Key Takeaways

  • Seasonality drives demand: Late summer through Q4 sees peak shopper intent, with variations by market.
  • Paid social and search dominate: Google, Meta, and TikTok remain key channels, with market-specific differences.
  • Retailer mix is local: Mass retailers and Grocery chains lead, while delivery platforms support convenience.
  • Full-funnel activation matters: Combining media and brand sites captures intent from awareness to conversion.
  • Growth opportunity exists in shoppable media: Markets like France and the UK show underutilized media-to-checkout paths, highlighting potential for incremental conversion and first-party audience building.

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.