Quarterly Commerce Marketing Benchmarks for Toys and Games Brands
Overview and KPIs
Toys and Games brands operate in a highly seasonal, gift-driven category where shoppers move quickly between discovery, research, and purchase. Understanding when, where, and how shoppers express purchase intent is essential to capturing demand, optimizing media spend, and maximizing conversions.
MikMak’s quarterly Toys and Games 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 Toys and Games Commerce Marketing Highlights
- Media drives seasonal conversions in North America
In the US and Canada, commerce-enabled media outperformed brand websites in conversion likelihood, with paid social and search capturing early-stage gift intent and inspiring purchases. - Brand websites convert highly qualified shoppers in Europe
In the UK and France, owned sites drove the strongest conversion likelihood, while media reached broader audiences and reinforced brand consideration. - Search and social fuel discovery across markets
Organic and paid search capture research-driven shoppers, while social platforms like Meta, TikTok, and YouTube inspire early-stage gift decisions. - Marketplaces and mass retailers lead purchase paths
Amazon, Walmart, Target, Argos, Carrefour, and specialty Toy retailers captured most Purchase Intent Clicks. Promoting broad retailer coverage is critical for brands to avoid lost demand and gaps in first-party data.
United States
Media shows high conversion potential
In Q4, commerce-enabled media showed a 30.4% conversion likelihood, slightly higher than brand websites (26.6%), highlighting the effectiveness of paid social for high-intent holiday shoppers.
Brands' media activity and shopper intent were driven by paid social, organic search, and organic social, with Meta, Google, and TikTok as the leading platforms for shopper traffic.
.png?width=1200&height=627&name=TOY25-Traffic-Media%20US%20(1).png)
Mass retailers dominate shopper paths
Amazon and Walmart captured the majority of Purchase Intent Clicks, followed by Target, highlighting brand promotion and the critical role of marketplaces and mass retailers for Q4 toy and game shoppers.
Canada
Media shows high conversion potential
In Q4, shoppers exposed to commerce-enabled media showed a 21.2% likelihood to convert, slightly higher than brand websites at 18.2%, suggesting seasonal campaigns, especially paid social, were highly effective at engaging high-intent gift shoppers.
Brands' media activity and shopper intent were driven by organic search, paid social, and paid search, with Meta, Google, and TikTok as the leading platforms for shopper traffic.
Mass retailers capture the bulk of shopper traffic
Amazon and Walmart led Purchase Intent Clicks, with Canadian Tire close behind, highlighting brand promotion and the importance of mass-market and convenience-focused retailers for Q4 shopping.
United Kingdom
Brand websites show strong conversion potential, media supports discovery
In Q4, shoppers exposed to commerce-enabled brand websites had a 20.8% likelihood to convert, versus 8.4% for media, indicating that owned destinations engage highly qualified audiences, while media supports discovery and consideration.
Brands' media activity was primarily driven by paid search, organic search, and paid social, with Google, Meta, and YouTube as the leading platforms for shopper traffic.
Marketplaces lead shopper traffic
Amazon captured the largest share of Purchase Intent Clicks, followed by Argos and Smyth Toys, highlighting the importance of marketplace and specialty retailers for holiday shoppers in the UK.
France
Brand websites lead conversion likelihood, media drives discovery
In Q4, shoppers exposed to commerce-enabled brand websites showed a 29.0% likelihood to convert, compared with 3.7% for media, highlighting the strong conversion readiness of visitors on owned sites. Brand websites convert highly qualified shoppers, while media reaches broader audiences.
Brands' media activity was driven by organic search, paid search, and paid social, with Google, Meta, and TikTok as the leading platforms for shopper traffic.
Retail mix emphasizes marketplaces and specialty chains
Carrefour captured the largest share of Purchase Intent Clicks, followed closely by Amazon and Joué Club, highlighting the importance for brands of promoting broad retailer coverage across Grocery, marketplace, and specialty Toy stores for Q4 shoppers in France.
Key Takeaways
- Prioritize media for high-intent seasonal campaigns
In North America, paid social drives reach and strong conversion likelihood during the holiday season. Combine with search to capture early-stage gift intent and facilitate the purchase path from all your media content and ads. - Leverage brand websites for highly qualified shoppers
In the UK and France, owned sites remain critical for converting research-driven audiences. Ensure product detail, inventory, and checkout experiences are optimized to maximize likelihood of purchase. - Combine search and social for discovery
Paid and organic search capture research-driven shoppers, while social platforms like Meta, TikTok, and YouTube inspire and influence early-stage decisions. A balanced media mix ensures coverage across the full purchase journey. - Promote broad retail coverage
Holiday shoppers access toys through marketplaces, mass retailers, grocery, and specialty chains. Missing key retail touchpoints can result in lost sales and gaps in first-party data collection. - Plan around seasonal peaks
Toys and Games demand is highly seasonal. Align media spend, inventory, and promotions with peak shopping periods to maximize reach, conversion, and ROI. Use first-party data collected throughout the year to optimize campaigns during the high season, when competition and advertising costs are at their highest.
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.
