Food and beverage shopping doesn’t belong to a single aisle, app, or occasion. A consumer might discover a recipe on social media, compare products online, add groceries through a retailer app, pick up an order on the way home, and use a delivery service for dinner later that week.
For marketers, this creates more opportunities to influence a purchase, along with a more fragmented path to reach the people making it. Consumers move among grocery retailers, restaurant brands, delivery platforms, recipe content, retail media, and digital channels before deciding what, where, and how to buy.
Many forces are reshaping this category: digital grocery growth, stronger health and lifestyle preferences, and rising demand for convenience, to name just a few. To keep pace, marketers need audience-first strategies grounded in behaviors, interests, purchase intent, and consumption habits.
In this post, we’ll explore three trends shaping food and beverage marketing in 2026, plus practical ways to reach relevant audiences using Eyeota’s Food & Beverage Audience Guide.