- Coffee is present in 98% of Brazilian households, and digital channels have become even more relevant for brands that want to capture demand with precision.
- In Mercafé’s case, the main progress came from retargeting, which helped recover interest, increase conversion and encourage repeat purchases.
- The result was a more scalable operation, with a real impact on orders and revenue.
The coffee market in Brazil remains strong. It is part of daily life and deeply connected to recurring consumption. In 2025, the country consumed 21.409 million bags. Coffee remained present in 98% of households, and Brazil stayed the second largest coffee consumer in the world. At the same time, buying behaviour became more selective. This increases the value of strategies that reconnect interest with convenience and trust.
This context helps explain why retargeting in coffee e-commerce has become so important. When a category is already part of everyday life, the challenge is rarely introducing the product for the first time. The core task is to follow the journey, reduce the loss between visit and purchase, and keep the brand present until the decision matures.
Why retargeting makes sense in the coffee market
Coffee has a valuable quality for digital strategy: it combines discovery, habit and repurchase. ABIC itself shows that certified speciality-style products grew by more than 300%, even though they still represent a small share of total retail volume. This points to a market that continues to create space for added value, experience and curation.
At the same time, food and beverage e-commerce is still growing in Brazil. In 2024, the sector grew by 18.4%. Data cited by E-commerce Brasil, based on NielsenIQ, also indicates that 60% of Brazilians already buy food online. For coffee brands, this makes the digital environment even more strategic, especially when there is initial interest but conversion does not happen on the first visit.
In practice, this is ideal ground for retargeting. It allows brands to reconnect with consumers who have already shown intent. It also makes it possible to serve messages that better match the purchase moment and the natural replenishment cycle of a recurring category.
Mercafé’s challenge before the strategy
Before retargeting was structured, Mercafé faced a challenge that is common across many e-commerce operations, but especially sensitive in speciality coffee. There was interest, browsing and consideration. Still, a meaningful share of that intent was lost between the visit and the purchase.
According to Igor Carvalho, media and performance specialist at Mercafé, the official online store of Grupo 3 Corações, the consumer journey usually begins with exploration. Many users arrive at the site looking to discover new coffees, understand differences in origin, roast profile and brewing methods, and assess which consumption experience best matches their preferences.
As consumers move further along that journey, other factors begin to carry more weight in the decision-making process: clarity of product information, brand credibility, browsing experience, convenience during the purchase process, and confidence in delivery.
Without a consistent re-engagement strategy, part of these interactions ended up turning into one-off visits or isolated purchases, with less progression towards repeat buying. The challenge, therefore, was not only to improve conversion on the first touchpoint, but to keep Mercafé present throughout a journey that naturally unfolds in stages until the purchase decision is made.
How retargeting started to support the journey
After the operation was reviewed, retargeting took on a more structured role within the strategy. The logic moved beyond simply re-impacting users. It began to work around the right moment in the journey, reconnecting the brand with people who had already shown genuine interest in the products.
From Mercafé’s perspective, personalised ads started to act as a point of reconnection for consumers who already knew the platform. This increased the conversion rate and recovered opportunities that had previously been lost along the funnel. This shift also helped raise LTV, as it strengthened the relationship with customers who return to buy more often.
This is especially important in coffee. Because it is a naturally replenished product, retargeting works very well when it appears as a timely and contextual reminder, without interrupting the experience. It follows the rhythm of the category and helps make the journey more fluid.
Branding started to enter more recently as support for this structure. Its role was to expand digital presence and feed the top of the journey. Even so, in this case, retargeting remains the main driver. It supported the reconnection with existing intent more directly. It also helped turn that interest into purchase and repurchase.
Campaign results and what they show
The numbers help show the strength of this progress. Comparing the analysed periods, the operation recorded:
- +1029.62% in impressions
- +804.69% in clicks
- +1204.62% in revenue
- +1203.51% in orders
- +1964.30% in investment
ROI changed by -36.79%, but this point needs context. The reduction came from a joint strategic decision. The goal was to expand media buying power and allow for a more scalable operation. As a result, the campaign gained volume. Revenue grew. Orders also increased, in a way that was more aligned with the account’s potential.
What makes this result especially positive is the combination of category behaviour and execution. In a recurring market, purchase tends to be more intentional. Digital also already holds a more established role in this journey. That is why this increase in revenue and orders reveals something important. The strategy became better at capturing demand that already existed.
What this case teaches brands in recurring categories
Mercafé’s case study shows that, in the Brazilian coffee market, retargeting can play a far more strategic role than simply recovering baskets. When it is well structured, it helps turn discovery into conversion, purchase into repeat behaviour and traffic into more consistent growth.
It also becomes clear that recurring categories require journey-based thinking, not just pressure for immediate results. Consumers research, compare, mature their decision and come back when they find trust, convenience and a good reason to act. This is exactly where retargeting gains value.
For brands operating in coffee e-commerce, the lesson is clear. When there is real interest and a qualified base of visitors, the opportunity changes in scale. The focus shifts to maintaining presence throughout the journey. Then, it becomes about reconnecting with that consumer more intelligently.
Want to understand how to apply a similar approach in a recurring consumption category? Talking about retargeting with more precision may be the step that separates visits from real growth.
