From Shelf to Sip: Amazon’s In-Store Ads Fuel Beverage Growth
By Adrianna Lugo |
Published on Oct 17, 2025
| 10 min read
Amazon just took retail media to the next level by bringing digital advertising inside its physical stores.
That’s right: shoppers visiting Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods Market can now see brand ads on digital screens while they browse, grab lunch, or pick up their favorite cold brew.
For marketers, this isn’t just another channel. It’s the moment where online precision meets offline presence. Retail media has evolved beyond product pages and Sponsored Brands ads — it’s now showing up in the aisles themselves.
And for beverage brands, this is a dream come true. Visibility drives impulse purchases, and beverages are the ultimate impulse category.
Studies show that drinks are among the top in-store impulse purchases, meaning physical placement and visibility can directly impact sales. Now, thanks to Amazon’s in-store signage, brands can finally connect digital strategy to real-world action.
What Is Amazon’s Digital Signage Program?
Amazon’s Digital Signage via DSP (ADSP) allows advertisers to buy in-store digital ad placements through the same platform they already use for online campaigns.
It’s now active across 500+ Whole Foods Market and 42 Amazon Fresh stores!
Key Capabilities
- Dynamic creatives that automatically adapt to stock levels, live promotions, and ratings.
- Flexible buying: you control campaign budgets, schedules, and locations.
- Biddable CPM model or seasonal fixed-price deals, perfect for brands planning around seasonal spikes.
💡 Beverage insight: For multi-flavor or pack-based beverage lines, dynamic creative is a lifesaver. If your sparkling lime flavor sells out, Amazon’s system automatically switches to the next available SKU — keeping your ad live and relevant while avoiding wasted impressions.
Why Beverage Brands Should Pay Attention
Beverages are one of the most dynamic categories in grocery, and Amazon’s in-store ads are built to amplify exactly what makes them work.
1. Drinks Are Everywhere — So Should Your Brand
From deli coolers to checkout lanes, shoppers encounter beverages in multiple spots during their trip. With Amazon’s signage, your brand can show up at each of those touchpoints — whether they’re grabbing dinner, stocking up on snacks, or impulse-buying a drink on the way out.
Perfect for RTD coffee, Milks and Creamers, sodas, kombucha, sparkling water, or protein shakes, these placements make your brand feel ever-present.
2. Impulse Drives Growth
“Grab one on your way out.” That’s the magic phrase of beverage marketing — and Amazon just built a screen for it.
Digital signage allows you to meet customers at the moment of decision, when seeing your product can instantly lead to a sale.
3. Seasonality Is Your Superpower
Beverages thrive on seasonal moments — summer hydration, fall pumpkin spice, January ‘New Year, New Me.’
Amazon’s seasonal fixed CPM deals let you plug directly into these high-traffic periods with predictable costs and measurable impact. CPM placements during key windows like holiday or summer seasonal campaigns mean you can plan your spend around your flavor calendar.
4. Whole Foods = Premium Halo
Whole Foods shoppers care about ingredients, sustainability, and brand story — exactly where many beverage brands shine.
By advertising in this environment, your brand benefits from that premium association, elevating perception and trust.
💡 Pro Tip: Tailor your creative to match the Whole Foods mindset — highlight natural ingredients, functional benefits, or occasion-based consumption (“Fuel your morning,” “Elevate your lunch break,” “Sip sustainably”).
Integrating In-Store and Online Amazon Campaigns
Here’s where things really get powerful: Amazon’s DSP now gives you the tools to connect your in-store impressions to your online sales funnel.
- Run an in-store digital ad at Whole Foods for your cold brew coffee.
- Retarget those same shoppers on Amazon.com later that week with a Sponsored Display or DSP ad: “Grab a 12-pack online.”
That’s full-funnel retail media in action — awareness, consideration, and conversion, all within Amazon’s ecosystem.
To make it seamless, use the same ASINs, keywords, and creative themes across campaigns. Keep your message consistent from shelf to screen to shopping cart!
Measuring Impact: From Screens to Sales
Each digital signage campaign comes with detailed reporting, including:
- Estimated impressions
- Stores with playback
- Cost per thousand (CPM)
- Sales uplift analysis comparing test vs. control stores
You’ll even get geographic and category breakdowns showing where and when your ads moved the needle.
💡 For beverage brands: This is huge. You can track how in-store exposure affects velocity and sell-through for specific SKUs or flavors. Small-format and RTD beverages can directly correlate campaign flights with POS data spikes, helping to prove the real-world impact of your retail media spend.
How to Get Started
Ready to get your brand on screen? Here’s how to begin:
- Talk to your Amazon Advertising or DSP rep (or your agency partner) to join the Closed Beta.
- Select your stores. Start with those where your distribution is strongest — Amazon Fresh for volume, Whole Foods for brand halo.
- Prepare your creatives.
- Use automatic creatives for easy setup and real-time updates.
- Upgrade to custom creatives when you’re ready to tell your whole brand story.
- Test dayparts. Try morning (for energy drinks and coffee), afternoon (hydration), and evening (mocktails or relaxation blends).
- Track results and refine. Use uplift reports to optimize future campaigns.
💼SUG Insight: Our team helps beverage brands connect these dots — designing, launching, and optimizing omnichannel campaigns that tie in-store exposure to Amazon search, DSP, and retail sales lift.