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A ShopLiftr guide developed with MikMak examines how shopper purchase intent can point to different retailers than the strongest live promotion. Its examples include five Dallas cookie offers and national promotion and intent data; the guide recommends deliberate retailer choices and controlled testing rather than automatically following either signal.
ShopLiftr and MikMak have released a planning guide for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands weighing shopper purchase intent against the live promotions available at different retailers. The guide uses a Dallas cookie-price comparison and national data to show why the retailer shoppers favor may not be the one advertising the lowest current price.
In a snapshot covering the week of Sept. 14, a 13-ounce pack of a national cookie brand was promoted at five Dallas retailers. Tom Thumb and Albertsons listed it at $1.99; Kroger offered two for $6; Dollar General, two for $7; and Walgreens, two for $10. The same product UPC was compared across one city and seven days. The material describes a 151% spread between the lowest and highest promoted prices.
That comparison is a week-specific view of advertised offers, not a full measure of each retailer’s pricing or value. The guide notes that each offer ran in the retailer’s Dallas zone and that a higher promoted price can reflect a retailer’s shoppers or margins. It also says that no single shopper necessarily saw all five offers, underscoring that the comparison does not establish what any individual customer encountered.
ShopLiftr reports that in the same September week, 1,495 branded CPG products were promoted at three or more U.S. retailers. Of those products, 90% had more than one price, and four in 10 had a price gap of at least 50%. The figures describe that week’s promotions; they do not establish how often the same differences occur across other periods.
Shopper intent and live offers point to different retailers
A shopper’s likely retailer may not have the strongest current promotion. ShopLiftr and MikMak recommend weighing both signals and testing retailer choices rather than automatically following either one.
One product, five Dallas offers
In a week-of-Sept. 14 snapshot, the same 13-ounce cookie pack had markedly different advertised offers.
| Retailer | Advertised offer |
|---|---|
| Tom Thumb | $1.99 |
| Albertsons | $1.99 |
| Kroger | 2 for $6 |
| Dollar General | 2 for $7 |
| Walgreens | 2 for $10 |
Intent is a separate signal
MikMak’s Q2 2026 food-and-beverage figures report shares of purchase-intent clicks, not market share or sales.
Choose, then test
The guide treats retailer selection as a brand decision—not an automatic result of shopper preference or the lowest price.
Identify where purchase-intent signals are concentrated.
See where promotions are running and what role each offer could play.
Use controlled markets to assess incremental sales, not just purchases shifting between retailers.
When Retailer Preference Meets Price
For brand teams, the mismatch affects where advertising appears and which retailer offers it promotes. A media plan built around a shopper’s preferred store may overlook a timely deal elsewhere; a plan that simply follows the lowest price may fail to reach shoppers where they already show purchase intent. The guide argues that neither signal should automatically determine retailer selection.
Its proposed response is to make the choice deliberately: maintain investment in the preferred retailer, add another retailer to the campaign, or test the stronger offer in a controlled market. The test should distinguish incremental sales from purchases that merely shifted between retailers. That distinction matters because a campaign can generate activity without proving that it grew total demand.
ShopLiftr says its advertising system can serve current retailer offers in dynamic ads across display, video, connected TV and digital out-of-home. Advertisers select which retailers to feature; the system then uses location and shopper preference to determine which selected retailer’s live offer to show. That approach is presented as a way to connect off-site advertising with nearby promotions, not as an automatic decision about which retailer deserves a brand’s budget.
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The Data Behind the Guide
The guide, titled Aligning Discovery with Deals, combines ShopLiftr’s promotion data with MikMak’s purchase-intent data. ShopLiftr says its database tracks promotions across more than 300 U.S. retailers, with over 200,000 active deals refreshed weekly. Those figures are company-reported descriptions of the database.
MikMak’s Q2 2026 food-and-beverage purchase-intent figures assign Walmart 25.9% of clicks, Instacart 12.2%, and Target 9.3%. The material describes these as signals derived from real shopping behavior, rather than stated preference. It does not provide the full methodology, the number of clicks, or a comparison with earlier quarters, so the percentages should be read as shares of the reported intent clicks rather than market shares or sales.
The companies frame the guide around a planning gap: retailer priorities are often set months ahead, while promotions can change weekly. The guide sorts retailer-and-product combinations into four scenarios and includes a five-step workflow and test-design details. The supplied description explains one scenario—strong shopper preference paired with a weaker offer—but does not spell out the other three.
“The comparison is for planning. The ad itself is straightforward.”
— ShopLiftr, describing its approach
Limits of the Price and Intent Data
The material does not identify the cookie brand or the exact calendar year of the Sept. 14 promotion week. It also does not provide the underlying calculation for the stated 151% price spread, or explain how multi-buy prices were converted for comparison. The listed offers can be reported as advertised, but the comparison should not be treated as a complete accounting of unit prices, loyalty discounts, or what shoppers ultimately paid.
The Q2 2026 intent figures are presented without methodology, sample size, or a historical comparison. The cited campaign result—a 7.1% overall sales lift, 12.3% lift for the featured product, and $491,000 in incremental sales on $96,150 in media spending—comes from a separate ShopLiftr campaign for a quick-service-restaurant-licensed CPG brand. ShopLiftr says it used matched test and control markets, a 52-week baseline, Nielsen Sales Data and Pathformance xAOC to assess the result. The material does not provide the full study design or independent verification, and the result cannot establish what another campaign would achieve.
The guide’s full four-scenario framework and webinar details beyond the listed date and time are not included in the material. The year for the Dec. 3 webinar is also unspecified, so its current registration status cannot be confirmed from these details.
Testing Retail Choices in Campaigns
The guide recommends starting with three planning questions: where shopper interest is concentrated, where live promotions are running and what role each offer should serve, and where purchase intent diverges from the current deals. Brands can use those signals to decide which retailers to include, then test the choice rather than assume that preference or price alone will deliver the best result.
ShopLiftr and MikMak also listed a webinar, Capturing the Deal-Motivated Shopper, for Thursday, Dec. 3, at 10:30 a.m. ET, with a CPG guest expected to join. The year and registration status are not specified. The next useful evidence for marketers will be the guide’s complete test framework and campaign results that show whether aligning offers with shopper intent produces incremental sales across comparable markets.
Source: rss
Key Questions
What is the guide about?
Aligning Discovery with Deals, from ShopLiftr and MikMak, helps CPG brands compare purchase-intent signals with the promotions currently available at retailers. It recommends choosing retailers deliberately and testing the decision.
Which Dallas retailer had the lowest listed cookie price?
Tom Thumb and Albertsons listed the 13-ounce pack at $1.99 in the week-of-Sept. 14 snapshot. The other listed deals were multi-buy offers, so the material does not describe a full unit-price comparison method.
What did MikMak report about food-and-beverage purchase intent?
For Q2 2026, the reported shares of purchase-intent clicks were Walmart at 25.9%, Instacart at 12.2%, and Target at 9.3%. The figures are click shares, not reported retailer sales shares.
Does the advertising system automatically select retailers?
No. ShopLiftr says the brand chooses which retailers to feature. Its system then serves a live offer for the shopper’s location from among those selected retailers, using proximity and shopper preference as guides.
What should brands do when shopper intent and the strongest offer differ?
The guide suggests considering whether to keep the preferred retailer, add another retailer, or test the stronger offer in a controlled market. It recommends measuring whether the campaign drives incremental sales or shifts purchases between retailers.
Source: fooddive.com
