The Retailers Association of India (RAI) and Google have entered into a strategic partnership to promote digital transformation among India’s retail sector, with a special focus on empowering small and medium-sized retailers.
The collaboration aims to leverage Google’s digital ecosystem, including Google Business Profile, Google Ads, Google Shopping, and Google Cloud, to help retailers strengthen their online presence, attract local customers, and adopt digital solutions at scale. The initiative will benefit RAI’s extensive network of more than 600,000 retail storefronts across the country.
The partnership will focus on three key areas. The first is expanding digital adoption by helping retailers improve online discoverability through Google Business Profile and Merchant Center while showcasing in-store inventory to increase local customer engagement. Retailers will also gain access to Google’s advertising solutions across platforms such as Google Search, Google Shopping, Google Maps, and Google Pay to enhance customer acquisition.
The second area involves sharing research, digital readiness frameworks, and market insights to support the development of a more competitive and digitally enabled retail ecosystem in India.
The third pillar focuses on preparing retailers for the future of commerce through RAI-led industry events, leadership workshops, and executive discussions centred on evolving consumer behaviour, artificial intelligence, and emerging retail technologies.
Commenting on the partnership, 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, added:
“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 by 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.”
To oversee the initiative, RAI and Google will establish a Joint Working Group responsible for implementation, monitoring progress, and sharing best practices to maximise the programme’s impact across the retail industry.
