Wallet war: More new things are fighting for every rupee Indians earn
Indian Consumer Spending Trends: Indian households are increasingly shifting their consumption patterns, which reflects a richer variety of spending options. This changing consumer behavior shows significant growth in non-food expenditures over th...
Try Blinkit or Zepto for something you would once have had to hunt for in a specialty store — imported Diet Coke, Japanese snacks, premium cheese or an international skincare brand. Now look at the delivery estimate. Ten minutes. Fifteen, perhaps.
In May, Blinkit was listing a 330 ml imported can of Diet Coke for Rs 199, against about Rs 40 for the locally made version. The price gap was unusually wide because of a temporary shortage of aluminium cans. But the fact that an imported, niche product can now be accessed in minutes points to a broader change: the Indian household is not simply buying more. It is buying more kinds of things, which India's official statistics are increasingly reflecting.
According to data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023–24, food accounted for 42.6% of average urban Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) in 2011-12. By 2023-24, that share had fallen to about 40%, while non-food spending had risen to roughly 60%. Urban MPCE rose from Rs 2,630 to Rs 6,996.
In 2023-24, conveyance, with an 8.46% share, had the largest share in non-food expenditure. Durable goods accounted for 6.87%, while miscellaneous goods and entertainment made up 6.92%. Clothing, bedding and footwear accounted for 5.66%.
The food basket itself has changed. Beverages, refreshments and processed food accounted for 11.09% of urban consumption expenditure in 2023-24, compared with cereals and cereal substitutes at 3.74%.
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This is not simply a story about a richer household eating more. It is a story about a household whose rupee now has many more places to go.
Spending now spans everything from cars and air-conditioners to phone upgrades, food delivery, streaming, beauty and fitness. And increasingly, it includes something from a foreign brand that would not have been easy to find in India a few years ago.
The inflation basket has changed too
When MoSPI revised the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in 2026, moving its base from 2012 to 2024, it did not merely change the weights. It changed the things being tracked.
The number of weighted items rose from 299 to 358. Goods increased from 259 to 308 and services from 40 to 50. The new basket added online media and streaming services, pen drives and external hard disks, exercise equipment, babysitters, attendants, value-added dairy products and rural house rent, among other items.
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The government is also collecting prices from e-commerce platforms in 12 large towns, with online prices collected weekly. Prices for services such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, JioHotstar, SonyLIV, YouTube Premium and Zee5 are being collected online for the CPI.
The inflation basket is beginning to look a little more like the shopping basket on an Indian phone. It does not mean every household is buying all these things. It means the economy has changed enough for them to matter in measuring household prices.
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From one TV to an ecosystem
The same transformation is visible in durable goods. An Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister analysis comparing 2011-12 with 2023-24 found significant increases in durable-goods spending and ownership, including among lower-consumption households.
For the urban bottom 40% of households by consumption, the share owning all four durable categories — transport equipment, household appliances, personal goods and recreational goods — examined in the study rose from 11.6% in 2011-12 to 45.5% in 2023-24.
“Consumers are increasingly looking for larger capacities, better technology, energy efficiency and convenience. This is not just replacement demand; consumers are upgrading to products that offer a significantly better experience,” Sanjay Chitkara, Co-CSMO, LGE India, told ET Online.
A wider set of households now has access to products that were once occasional or aspirational purchases.
A television became a smart TV. A phone became a phone, camera, wallet, television and work computer. The kitchen acquired an air fryer, mixer, coffee machine or induction hob.
These changes reflect broader structural shifts in society too. Unilever, for instance, highlighted — at the Barclays Consumer Staples Conference — how factors including Gen Z demographics, rising female workforce participation and deep digital penetration are driving a “New India” consumption model.
And the world is walking into it
Japan's Uniqlo has gone from being a new entrant to a rapidly expanding Indian business. Its India revenue rose 44% in FY25 to more than Rs 1,100 crore, while the company said its Indian business had grown at nearly 60% CAGR since entering the country in 2019. In March, it opened its 18th Indian store and said e-commerce sales were growing at around 140% CAGR.
It is not alone. Kim Kardashian's SKIMS is entering India through Reliance Brands, with its first stores planned for Delhi and Mumbai. Lululemon is entering through Tata Cliq, while Carrefour has returned to India after leaving the country in 2014, this time with a smaller-format strategy and an eventual quick-commerce ambition.
Many other consumer companies are also stepping up their India bets, with distribution, premiumisation and digital channels emerging as important areas of opportunity.
Nestlé India has described premiumisation and consumer experience as major consumption trends, saying premium products are outpacing category growth.
In a call with analysts, Nestlé Indiasaid the trend was no longer confined to urban India, with rural consumers also developing a taste for premium products.
Coca-Cola CEO Henrique Braun has similarly said on an earningscall the company is seeing opportunities “not only on the affordability part ... but also on the premiumisation side as well.”
The reason is not simply that Indians suddenly want foreign labels. Global products are becoming easier to discover, compare and buy even as consumers are becoming familiar with them beyond the physical store.
The 10-minute globalisation of the Indian kitchen
Quick commerce may be the clearest expression of this. The first promise of Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart was convenience. They delivered the everyday essentials.
Now the platforms are fighting over something else — what else can they persuade you to put in the basket?
Quick commerce accounted for 60-75% of online sales for several major FMCG companies in FY26, according to company data reported by ET. Companies are expanding beyond staples into premium and impulse-driven categories.
Blinkit has expanded its Gourmet Store; Zepto has been preparing a Select section focused on imported products and premium groceries; Amazon Now has been piloting Gourmet Picks.
Swiggy's 2024 Instamart data showed consumers using the platform for everything from makeup and toys to vacuum cleaners.
Beauty is another example. Sales of beauty and personal-care products across Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart were approaching $1 billion annualised by July, according to Redseer, with sales growing about 90% year-on-year and more than 30 million monthly shoppers.
“Beauty has since become a major category for us even as a dedicated beauty platform can’t easily offer 10-minute delivery. With 2,000 beauty SKUs, we share transportation with grocery products, significantly lowering per-product logistics costs. Storage costs also get amortised,” Albinder Dhindsa - current Eternal CEO- had told ET Tech last year.
The change is subtle but profound. You no longer have to decide to “go shopping” to consume. You can discover something on Instagram, see it on an app, compare the price, pay digitally and have it at your door before you have finished making dinner.
The home is becoming another consumption universe
A new Deloitte report estimates India's home, household market could reach $260 billion by 2030, from roughly $160 billion. Durables, appliances alone are projected to rise from $66 billion in 2025 to $95 billion by 2030.
The average age of first-time homebuyers has shifted from the early 40s to the early 30s, while Tier-2 households spent an average Rs 3.9 lakh per home on interiors in 2025 — about 74% of Tier-1 spending.
The home is no longer just four walls, a sofa and fridge. It is a project with a modular kitchen, lighting, furniture, appliances, security, smart-home devices, décor. Deloitte says consumers now engage with the home ecosystem across more than four categories on average.
The crowded wallet
The home is, however, only a part of a more crowded wallet.
“A shampoo brand is competing with a Jio recharge, and a refrigerator EMI is competing with a weekend trip,” said Ravi Kapoor, partner and leader, retail and consumer sector, PwC India. Food now accounts for about 39% of household consumption expenditure, he said.
Credit is increasingly serving both everyday needs and longer-term aspirations, with Indian consumers looking beyond routine purchases towards home ownership, entrepreneurship and education. “The clearest shift we have observed is in the role of credit: from primarily helping manage immediate or short-term needs to increasingly enabling larger financial aspirations,” Ashish Tiwari, chief marketing and people officer at Home Credit India, told ET Online.
The company’s Great Indian Wallet 2026 study found that 34% of respondents planned to borrow to start or expand a business over the next one to two years, while 28% cited buying a house as a borrowing goal.
Consumer companies are seeing the shift extend beyond traditional household staples into wellness, premium personal care and convenience-led foods. “Consumers are increasingly seeking products that offer superior benefits, convenience, wellness attributes, or differentiated experiences, while continuing to remain value conscious in other parts of their baskets,” Saugata Gupta, MD and CEO of Marico, told ET Online.
And then there is the global shopping aisle, sitting inside the phone, bringing an ever-wider range of products and experiences within arm’s reach of Indian consumers. The consumption story may not simply be about having more money. It may be about having more things worth spending that money on.
