September Buying Intent shows shifts becoming trends: FMCG & F&B weaken; Digital & BFSI rise YoY

Mumbai, 1 October 2026: India Buying Intent stood at 98.2 in September, down 0.6 points from August and marking a third consecutive monthly decline. The national reading remains 0.9 points above September 2025 and 1.2 points higher than the corresponding quarter last year. The national picture therefore remains comparatively steady even as the differences between super-categories become more pronounced. September marks a shift in that some movements that looked rotational a month or two ago are now beginning to show persistence.

The clearest fall persistence is visible in everyday-use categories. FMCG Buying Intent fell 11.9% in September and is now 26.0% below September last year. Food & Beverage declined 7.2% during the month, its third successive monthly fall, although it remains only 2.9% below September 2025.

The category-level evidence reinforces the pattern. Among the 20 largest categories across FMCG and Food & Beverage, 14 declined in September. Eight of those 20 also fell in both the July-to-August and August-to-September comparisons. In Food & Beverage these include ice cream/frozen desserts, milk, aerated beverages and instant noodles; in FMCG they include cosmetics, soaps, toothpaste and personal hygiene products. The weakness, however, is not universal.

Within Food & Beverage, tea, packaged drinking water and instant coffee strengthened in September. Within FMCG, shampoo, face wash, sensitive toothpaste and hair colour were among the categories recording higher Buying Intent in select need-based categories.

The wider super-category picture is similarly divided. Digital Buying Intent rose 8.6% in September over last month and is 65.3% above September 2025. BFSI rose 8.5% during the month and is 68.4% above last year. Monthly changes show Retail rose 7.9% and Consumer Appliances 8.8%. On the other side, Automobile declined 9.3% and Consumer Electronics 5.4%, alongside FMCG and Food & Beverage.

“What stands out is that readiness-to-buy is becoming less broad-based. When Buying Intent strengthens in some sectors but weakens repeatedly across large everyday-use categories, the economy begins to show a narrower pattern of intent. For marketers, that changes the game: fewer categories are carrying the momentum, so category choice, timing and competitive position matter much more,” said N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research.

Buying Intent, an outcome of Trust and Desire readings, shows that in Food & Beverage, Trust eased only 0.7% from August while Desire fell 10.3%. In FMCG, Trust declined 8.1% and Desire 13.1%. The stronger movement in Desire suggests that the weakening in Buying Intent is more closely associated with reduced consumer pull than with a comparable deterioration in confidence.

Chandramouli added: “For marketers, that distinction matters. A brand can retain Trust and still lose Desire. The intervention required in that situation is very different from one where confidence itself is weakening.”

September also saw sharp brand-level movements. Among the largest gainers in Buying Intent were Bajaj (+253.8), TTK Prestige (+217.3), Hewlett Packard (+191.1), LIC (+188.9), Zudio (+187.1), HDFC Bank (+184.5), Zomato (+179.1) and CRED (+176.8). On the other side, Dell fell 415.6 points, Flipkart 291.3, Tata Motors 254.7, LG 227.2, Honda 212.3, Hyundai 201.7, Bata 191.3 and Samsung 190.0. Despite its fall, Dell continued to lead overall Buying Intent and Trust, while category leadership changed in several places, including Maruti Suzuki moving ahead of Tata Motors in Passenger Vehicles and Voltas overtaking Daikin in Air Conditioners.

Read the full September 2026 report · Download the report (PDF)

About BuyingIntent.in

India Buying Intent is TRA Research’s monthly measure of urban India’s keenness-to-buy and readiness-to-buy, built from Brand Trust and Brand Desire. The national index is normalised to April 2025 = 100 and is tracked monthly across brands, categories and super-categories.

The monthly tracking helps marketers, agencies, media, consultants, researchers and business analysts understand not only the current level of Buying Intent, but also its direction, persistence and movement across categories. Brand and category readings sit on their own indexed scales and should not be compared directly with the national index.

About TRA Research

TRA Research is one of India’s leading brand intelligence and consumer research companies, known for its work on Brand Trust, Brand Desire and Buying Intent. Through proprietary research frameworks and large-scale consumer studies, TRA Research tracks how brand confidence, aspiration and readiness-to-buy evolve across brands, categories and sectors.

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Pooja Basu
TRA Research
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