AI Revolutionizes Retail: Industry Experts Highlight Game-Changing Impacts at India D2C Summit 2024

Bhaskar Ramesh, Director of Omnichannel Businesses at Google India, stressed the revolutionary power of AI during his keynote talk on Day 1

Artificial intelligence (AI) is drastically transforming the retail sector by increasing productivity and lowering costs for both merchants and customers, according to retail executives speaking at the India D2C Summit 2024 in Mumbai. Bhaskar Ramesh, Director of Omnichannel Businesses at Google India, stressed the revolutionary power of AI during his keynote talk on Day 1 of the summit. He explained how Tanishq, an Indian jewelry company, significantly cut its customer acquisition cost (CAC) by 38% using Google's AI-powered omnichannel solutions. Similarly, Tira Beauty, Reliance Retail's omnichannel beauty platform, used Google Generative AI (GenAI) to transform product discovery. This resulted in a 50% increase in organic clicks, a 27% improvement in conversational value, and a 47% increase in online return on ad spend.

Ramesh explained that GenAI is ready to promote hyper-personalization, improve visual experiences, and boost market ROI by enabling profitable growth and lowering creative expenses through improved operational efficiency. He also mentioned that new-age customers are increasingly swayed by visuals rather than traditional keyword searches, with Gartner forecasting a 30% increase in digital commerce revenue driven by visual and voice searches.
The meeting also emphasized the growth of AI tools outside traditional search engines. According to Shridhar Marri, founder of Flyfish, merchants are looking into multimodal AI search solutions that can save them money while also improving e-commerce experiences.

The summit's experts agree that AI is more than a tool; it is a transformational force in the retail sector.