In September 2026, groceries and supermarkets accounted for 3.94 billion Unified Payments Interface (UPI) merchant transactions, representing 25.9% of the total 15.23 billion transactions reported by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). This category also led in transaction value, totaling Rs 84,238 crore, according to NPCI's merchant-category data.
The data showed a 1.8% decline in UPI merchant transaction volume from 15.51 billion in August to 15.23 billion in September, while transaction value fell 0.9% from Rs 8,95,321 crore to Rs 8,86,987 crore. Groceries topped all categories by transaction count, followed by fast food restaurants with 1.51 billion transactions and eating places and restaurants with 1.28 billion. Together, these three categories accounted for 44.2% of the total transactions, per medianama.com.
Despite leading in transaction volume, groceries made up only 9.5% of the total Rs 8,86,987 crore in merchant payments recorded by NPCI. Other categories such as debt collection agencies and securities brokers and dealers ranked higher in payment value but did not feature in the top 10 by transaction volume. The 'Other' category and the 'Total' row in NPCI's data are aggregates, not individual merchant categories.
The NPCI's September report highlights that groceries remain the dominant category for UPI merchant transactions by volume, with 3.94 billion transactions and Rs 84,238 crore in value. This data reflects ongoing consumer payment behavior trends in India’s digital payments landscape.