UPI winners and losers: Fast food, e-commerce surge, department stores collapse

India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has continued its blistering expansion, but the benefits are uneven. Fast food chains, online marketplaces and groceries have clocked the sharpest gains, while transactions at department stores have plunged, a Moneycontrol analysis of transaction data shows.

India’s UPI transactions crossed the 20 billion mark for the first time in August.

UPI payments at fast-food restaurants surged 255 percent in April–August 2025 to 5.9 billion from the same period in 2023, while the value of the transactions jumped 228 percent to Rs 69,133 crore. That translates to 4.1 swipes per person in just five months, compared with barely 1.2 two years ago. The average ticket size, however, dipped slightly from Rs 127 to Rs 117.

Online marketplaces also saw a boom, with transactions up 238 percent to 505 million and values climbing to Rs 33,947 crore. This works out to 0.35 transactions per capita, highlighting UPI’s dominance in e-commerce.

Groceries and supermarkets remain the backbone of digital payments. The category saw 14.5 billion transactions worth Rs 3.2 lakh crore—over 10 swipes per person in five months—underscoring how entrenched UPI has become in daily spending.

By contrast, department stores are fading fast. Transactions there plunged to 332 million worth Rs 21,156 crore, down nearly 80 percent in volume compared with 2023.