Festive cheer is high, but shoppers are counting every rupee

The festival wallet is opening up. But Indian shoppers are being more selective about what goes into their carts. From big-ticket buys to festive essentials, early trends suggest consumers are still willing to spend, albeit with a sharper eye on price, value and utility.

According to global research and analytics firm YouGov’s India Festive Shopping Report 2026, based on a nationally representative survey of 1,077 consumers, 26% of consumers plan to stick to their usual festive budget but shop smarter. Another 23% intend to cut back on non-essential purchases, while only 14% said they expect to spend more than last year.

Online festive spending, however, might be following a somewhat different trend. Market research firm Datum Intelligence’s 2026 Festive Outlook estimates online festive sales at Rs 1.50-1.55 lakh crore this year, up from Rs 1.20 lakh crore in 2025, implying growth of around 25-29%.


Datum sees order volumes rising rather than average basket sizes, suggesting consumers may be shopping more often without necessarily spending much more each time.

That mix of an expected rise in order volumes and more cautious individual purchases is beginning to show up across several categories.

Fashion stays at the top of the list

For most Indian households, festive shopping begins with clothes. According to the YouGov report, 47% of consumers said clothing and fashion would be among the categories on which they spend the most this festive season, making it the top spending category in the survey. Groceries and food or sweets followed at 36%, while jewellery stood at 27%.

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Apparel makers also expect a relatively strong season. A Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI) survey found that 52% of manufacturers expect festive sales to be higher than last year, while another 30% expect sales to remain broadly at last year’s level. Fewer than one in five anticipate a decline.

Around 45% of respondents picked Indian wear including kurtas, salwar suits and churidars as the category likely to perform best, followed by western casuals such as T-shirts and denims.

But the way consumers shop for clothes might be changing. According to Nikhil Sinha, Director, Amazon Fashion, shoppers are increasingly thinking in terms of complete looks instead of individual products.

“With the Amazon Great Indian Festival, we're seeing customers across Bharat, especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, embrace festive dressing in their own way, with demand surging 4X in cities such as Chandigarh, Jaipur and Surat, alongside strong growth from Kochi, Patna and Nagpur,” Sinha said.

Online channels now account for around 12% of apparel sales, according to CMAI, and are expected to gain further ground during the festive period.

But some shoppers may still hold back. YouGov found that 27% of consumers expect to reduce spending on clothing compared with last year, even though fashion remains the category they are most likely to spend on.

The CMAI survey found that 54% are absorbing higher raw-material costs by taking a hit on margins, while only around 35% have raised prices.

Kapil Thirani, Vice President, Marketplace and Fashion at Flipkart, said younger shoppers in particular are taking a more individual approach to ethnic wear. “This season, demand is spanning a diverse range of styles, from kurtas and ethnic co-ord sets to sarees, floor-length Anarkalis and salwar-kurta sets, as consumers curate distinct looks for different festive occasions while staying true to their personal style,” Thirani said.

Festive demand for cars moves into a higher gear

In automobiles, the signs are promising. More importantly, this is not just about consumer buying intent; it is backed by actual sales.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) report, passenger-vehicle sales reached 4,54,574 units in September 2026, up 21.8% from a year earlier. Two-wheeler sales stood at 24,63,103 units, up 13.5% from a year earlier, while three-wheelers grew by 16%.

The strong numbers carried into September. According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations’ (FADA) September vehicle retail data, overall auto registrations rose 31.82% year-on-year to a record 25,36,920 units. Passenger-vehicle retail increased 32.10% to 4,27,213 units, while two-wheeler registrations jumped 33.08% to 17,90,188 units.

However, FADA President Sai Giridhar in the official September 2026 release, cautioned that the 31.82% is the most base-distorted print of the year, as buyers had deferred purchases in the week before GST 2.0 took effect on September 22, 2025.

At Maruti Suzuki, the booking numbers offer another indication of demand.

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Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales at Maruti Suzuki India, said the company had more than two lakh pending bookings as of October 1 and does not expect the rainfall deficit to materially hurt festive demand. Rural markets also remained strong in September, he said, with rural penetration rising by nearly two percentage points from last year to 53%.

According to Banerjee, Maruti’s mini segment grew 39.8% in September and 86.7% during the first half of the financial year. “We are witnessing strong traction across segments and currently have more than 2 lakh pending bookings. The market remains bullish,” he said on the company’s 2026 sales call.

Mahindra & Mahindra ALSO expects demand to remain strong through the peak festive period.

Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division at M&M, said the company was seeing strength across its portfolio, helped by a fresh line-up and product refreshes. “We expect a strong festive season, fuelled by robust demand across the portfolio thanks to a fresh line-up of products and refreshes. The GST reforms continue to support affordability despite inflationary pressures, while we are also seeing customers gravitate towards higher-end variants,” he said.

Dealer sentiment is upbeat as well. According to FADA, 75.57% of dealers expect sales to rise in October. Passenger-vehicle inventories, however, have risen to around 43-45 days, putting the focus on whether festive demand can clear stock from showrooms quickly enough.

Gold remains coveted, but jewellery buyers turn cautious

Jewellery presents a much more complicated picture. According to YouGov, 27% of consumers list jewellery among the categories on which they expect to spend the most, putting it behind only clothing and food.

At the same time, jewellery has the highest expected cutback among the categories surveyed: 38% of consumers expect to reduce jewellery spending compared with last year’s festive season.

Similar caution is visible in gold too. According to an Economic Times report, gold sales during Ganesh Chaturthi fell around 15% year-on-year in volume terms, with consumers buying less or opting for lighter pieces.

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High gold prices could be one of the reasons behind the caution. According to an ET Online report published on September 15, prices of 24-carat gold were hovering around Rs 15,500 per gram, nearly 39% higher than around Rs 11,100 per gram a year earlier.

The caution around gold buying also has a wider economic context.

In May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to defer gold purchases, citing the foreign-exchange outflow associated with imports amid the West Asia conflict. ET reported his appeal as asking consumers to avoid buying gold for a year. On September 1, Modi reiterated the message, urging people not to buy gold unless necessary.

Surendra Mehta, National Secretary of the India Bullion & Jewellers Association, told ET online that the appeal could result in a 10-12% decline in festive gold sales, with imports potentially falling by a similar amount if domestic demand weakens.

The picture could change as the main jewellery-buying occasions arrive. Dhanteras and the wedding season are still ahead and Darshan Desai, CEO of Aspect Bullion & Refinery, expects demand to improve as the season progresses.

“With the ongoing festive season, we expect buying interest to gradually pick up,” he told the Economic Times.

Food and FMCG: A festive priority

Groceries and food/sweets, meanwhile, remain an important festive expense as per YouGov data, while dining out looks more vulnerable to cutbacks. According to the report, 36% of consumers expect groceries and food/sweets to be among their biggest festive expenses, compared with 12% for dining out. Only 13% expect to reduce spending on groceries and food or sweets, compared to 22% who plan to cut back on dining out as against last year.

The outlook for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) seems to be upbeat.

According to Equirus Capital’s July 2026 Consumer Sector Tracker, citing retail intelligence platform Bizom, FMCG demand is expected to grow 9-11% between August and November as festive spending picks up.

The report mentioned a period of moderated inflation has helped improve consumers’ real purchasing power, which is in effect allowing household incomes to stretch further and leaving consumers with more room to spend on festive purchases.

Signs of a recovery are already visible in company performance. Hindustan Unilever recorded its fastest volume growth in 13 quarters, while Nestlé India reported revenue growth of around 25%, according to the report.

The festive boost, however, comes with pressure on profitability. Higher palm oil, crude and packaging costs continue to squeeze margins, while FMCG companies are also facing stronger competition from quick-commerce platforms and a shift towards premium and personalised products, according to the report.

Celebration stays, spending gets smarter

Taken together, the findings across these categories suggest that consumers have not stepped back from festive spending. What has changed is how carefully they are choosing where to spend.

While clothing and fashion commands the biggest share of planned festive expenditure, online platforms appear to be seeing strong interest well beyond the metros.

Across categories, value — both in terms of quality and price — is a clear consideration for consumers. According to YouGov, 49% of consumers say product quality is an important factor when choosing between brands during the festive season, while 42% point to price or discounts.

And rather than opting out of festive spending, 26% say they intend to maintain their usual budgets but shop smarter.

The numbers tell a story: the festive spend is there, but consumers have their priorities.