Premiumisation is no longer just an urban phenomenon as rural consumers are also looking at indulgence largely aided by small packs. Rural households are adopting both premium and super premium FMCG products and even outpacing urban regions in terms of spends on these categories.
Rural households’ contribution to the affordable premium FMCG segment grew to 51 per cent in terms of volume in 2025 from 45 per cent in 2021, as per estimates of Worldpanel by Numerator. At the same time, rural household’s volume share in the super premium FMCG segment grew from 30 per cent in 2021 to 42 per cent in 2025. Super premium brands have a price index of 1.5x over the average category price.
In Small Packs
P.S Pradeep, Advanced Analytics Director, Worldpanel by Numerator said, “Rural households’ share is rising in both affordable premium and super premium segments of FMCG. The CAGR spends by rural households also reinforces this trend. Rural households’ spends on the super premium segment has grown by 7 per cent in the past five years and 11 per cent in the affordable premium segment. This is higher than the urban spends. Affordability through small packs is driving premium products adoption in rural regions.” He was speaking at a webinar organised by Market Research Society of India on Wednesday.
In contrast, urban spends in the past five years has grown by 4 per cent in the super premium segment and 7 per cent in the affordable premium segment.
Diversified Basket
He pointed out that rural consumption is becoming a more diversified basket and is evolving as more rural households are buying more categories. As per estimates by the market research and insights firms, nearly 36 per cent of rural households were found to have bought more than 25 FMCG categories in 2025. In contrast, in 2023 about 28 per cent rural households had bought more than 25 FMCG categories.
Pradeep also pointed out that rural consumption is strongly anchored in essentials but it is increasingly driven by affordable and problem solving needs. Overall, 51 per cent of the FMCG volumes comes from rural households making them the backbone of the industry.