top of page
Search

ShopLiftr Q3 2025 Trade Promotions Report

  • Writer: Genevieve Castonguay
    Genevieve Castonguay
  • Nov 3
  • 4 min read

Updated: Nov 4

Powered by ShopLiftr’s Proprietary Trade Promotion Database

Coverage Period: July 1 – September 30, 2025


Sustained Promotional Intensity Signals Retailers’ Fight for Share


In Q3 2025, ShopLiftr’s proprietary trade promotion database captured 445,663 unique promotions across North American grocery retail banners — a figure virtually unchanged from the previous quarter and consistent with the year’s trend toward sustained, high-volume promotional activity.


Q3 2025 Grocery TPR Data

Our quarterly totals tell the story of a category still defined by value-seeking shoppers and hyper-competitive retailers:

Quarter

Total Deals Captured

QoQ % Change

Q1 2025

445,804

—

Q2 2025

447,010

+0.27 %

Q3 2025

445,663

-0.30 %

YTD 2025 (Q1–Q3)

1,338,477

—


With three consecutive quarters above ~445K captured deals, promotional activity in 2025 remains on par with last year’s record-breaking 1.75 million promotions analyzed in 2024, signaling a durable commitment to trade investment even as cost structures evolve.



Executive Highlights

  1. Promotional volume plateaued but remains historically high, reflecting retailers’ focus on defending trips and share in an inflation-sensitive environment.

  2. Retailers and CPGs maintained broad promotional reach across channels — from grocery and mass to drug banners — ensuring visibility and deal consistency across both national chains and regional players.

  3. Private-label acceleration is intensifying; banners are using house brands as visible price anchors.

  4. Category barbell effect: shoppers trade down in staples (protein, dairy) but splurge selectively in beverages, wellness and snacking — each showing strong TPR rotation.

  5. Expanded digital circular adoption and in-store retail-media integration (retailer-media networks are moving toward unified platforms) are setting the stage for 2026’s unified retail-media/retail-data models.¹


Category Leaders — Trip-Driving Essentials Dominate

The top-promoted categories in Q3 reflect core basket drivers: center-store staples, beverages, dairy, frozen and household essentials. Despite stable volume, mix shifts favored private label and budget-conscious sub-lines, while premium indulgence categories (like sparkling beverages and confectionery) maintained steady rotation to offset elasticity.


Top Categories (by deal count)

  1. Beer / Wine / Spirits – 72,120 deals

  2. Snacks – 32,215

  3. Dairy – 27,867

  4. Fruit (Produce) – 25,043

  5. Meat (Fresh) – 23,359

  6. Prepared Foods – 22,161

  7. Soda – 21,961

  8. Juice / Drinks – 17,688

  9. Breakfast Foods – 15,937

  10. Vegetables (Produce) – 15,658

🟢 Context: Alcoholic beverages retained the #1 spot by a wide margin, with over twice as many deals as the next-highest category (Snacks). Fresh, refrigerated, and produce items collectively accounted for nearly half of all category-level promotions — evidence of continued emphasis on trip-driving everyday essentials.



What this means for Q4/Q1 planning:

  • Lean into barbell-value: pair “everyday value” items with occasional splurges (premium, seasonal or better-for-you) and surface both via dynamic creative.

  • Use store-nearest logic + real-time promos to localize messaging (ShopLiftr SMART Display/Video + L-Bar overlays).


ree

Brand Leaders — Consistent Activation, Broader Reach

Top brands mirrored their Q2 pattern, with large multi-SKU portfolios continuing heavy circular rotation to maintain visibility. Sustained “always-on” programs show that frequency and recency trump deep-discount depth when combined with ShopLiftr’s dynamic creative tools.


Top Brands

  1. Pepsi – 3,859

  2. Coca-Cola – 3,678

  3. Michelob Ultra – 3,294

  4. Coors Light – 3,119

  5. Starbucks – 3,092

  6. Bud Light – 3,089

  7. Hannaford (Private Label) – 3,020

  8. Miller Lite – 2,777

  9. Pillsbury – 2,657

  10. Tide – 2,599

🟢 Context: Beverage portfolios dominated Q3 activity, with Pepsi and Coca-Cola collectively accounting for over 7,500 promotions. Alcohol brands followed closely, reinforcing the “refreshment” cluster as a key area of investment. Hannaford’s own brand showing in the top ten further signals private-label strength.


Activation tips:

  • Align creative strategy with shopper rhythm — timely, context-aware updates outperform static brand messaging.

  • Pair national creative consistency with retailer-level precision to extend equity while driving measurable lift.


Retailer Activity — Omnichannel Momentum

The leading retailer groups maintained robust promotion counts, reinforcing that value remains the common currency across banners. Q3 also saw expanded digital circular adoption and in-store retail-media integration, aligning with retailer-media networks that are now building unified omnichannel platforms.²


What to watch:

  • Category resets (late Q3/early Q4) can briefly distort deal counts; watch for bounce-backs in weeks 42–48 as holiday plans ramp.



Product Movers — Trip Anchors and Seasonal Cross-Promos

Top-featured SKUs reflect trip-driver staples (bread, milk, snack multipacks) and seasonal rotation (grilling, back-to-school, early holiday).



Macro & Market Context

  • In the U.S., food-at-home CPI rose +2.7% YoY in September 2025; meats posted +5.2%, nonalcoholic beverages +5.3%.³

  • The global retail-media market is forecast to see continued double-digit growth, with U.S. retail-media spend projected to top US$179.5 billion closing 2025.⁴


Year-Over-Year Snapshot

Metric

2024 Full-Year

2025 YTD (Q1–Q3)

Variance

Total Captured Promotions

1.75 M

1.34 M

−23% vs full year (steady pace)

Note: The 2024 figure is a full-year total from ShopLiftr’s prior published report; the 2025 quarterly numbers are category totals from Q1–Q3. They serve trend-direction rather than direct equivalency.

Methodology

  • Source: ShopLiftr Proprietary TPR Database, Q3 2025 (July 1–September 30)

  • Coverage: This meticulous data was sourced by dedicated data teams, captured from top 300 grocery retailers' digital flyers, shelf promotions & direct retailer feeds; never scraped. Accuracy is ensured through weekly updates and UPC normalization for relevant insights.


Key Takeaway

Trade promotions aren’t slowing—they’re stabilizing at elevated volume.


As cost pressures ease but shoppers stay value-focused, CPGs and retailers shift toward precision, localization and creative relevance—areas where ShopLiftr’s dynamic activation platform provides a measurable edge.


Ready to see how your category stacks up — and how your brand can turn trade data into performance? Experience ShopLiftr’s dynamic creative platform in action.

Curious about the NEW L-Bar video?




References

  1. Retail media networks are maturing with unified buying and measurement capabilities. Total Retail+2Progressive Gr ocer+2

  2. Grocery Dive: Food-at-home prices +2.7% YoY in August 2025, driven by beef, eggs, coffee. grocerydive.com

  3. BLS CPI selected categories: Food at home +2.7% YoY (Sept 2025); meats +5.2%; nonalcoholic beverages +5.3%. Bureau of Labor Statistics+1

  4. Coresight Research: Global retail media market projected at US$179.5 billion in 2025. Supermarket News

  5. Retail media spend and growth trends: Omnichannel RMN spend was US$19.1 B (2024), estimated US$22.3 B (2025). Progressive Grocer

Comments

bottom of page