RAI and Google Partner to Drive Digital Adoption Among India’s Small and Medium Retailers
Collaboration will use Google Business Profile, Ads, Shopping, Cloud and AI-enabled tools to support more than 600,000 storefronts across India.
The Retailers Association of India and Google have entered into a strategic collaboration to support digital enablement among Indian retailers, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized businesses.
The initiative will draw on Google’s product ecosystem, including Google Business Profile, Google Ads, Google Shopping and Google Cloud, to provide scalable digital solutions across RAI’s retail network.
Under the RAI, the two organisations will explore cooperation in three key areas.
Supporting Deeper Retail Digitisation
RAI and Google will work to improve digital adoption among small and medium retailers by helping them understand how to use Google Business Profile and Merchant Center.
These tools can support the online discoverability of physical storefronts and enable retailers to showcase in-store inventory to attract local customers and generate new business.
Google will also help small and medium businesses expand their local reach through Google Ads across Google Pay, Google Search, Google Shopping and Google Maps.
Sharing Industry Insights
The collaboration will include the sharing of research, digital readiness frameworks and industry knowledge. These efforts are intended to support the development of a more competitive, inclusive and future-ready retail ecosystem in India.
Preparing Retailers for the Future of Commerce
Google and RAI will collaborate through RAI-led industry summits, executive workshops and leadership discussions. These engagements will provide retailers with information about emerging consumer behaviour and AI-driven commerce innovations.
Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India, said:
“Retail success involves the ability for retailers to know their customers, as well as to adopt modern methods, especially digitization. Retailers Association of India believes in creating a level-playing field for all types of retailers, and one part of this is to enable small retailers to adopt technologies that can help them stay relevant to their customers. This MoU between RAI and Google will help in creating capabilities of digitization for retailers across the country.”
Shalini Puchalappali, Managing Director, Google Customer Solutions, Google India said:
“Small and medium retailers are the backbone of Indian commerce. We already see merchants across India using everyday Google tools to connect with local shoppers, and the bigger opportunity lies in making our full ecosystem work together seamlessly for them. Through our collaboration with RAI, we want to help merchants go further – bringing the combined capabilities of Google Shopping, Google Ads, Google Cloud, and Google Pay, —underpinned by Google AI—directly into their hands so they can build resilient businesses and win the upcoming festive season.”
Joint Working Group to Oversee Implementation
A Joint Working Group comprising representatives from RAI and Google will oversee the implementation of the initiative. The group will also share industry learnings and best practices to support measurable outcomes.