As AI adoption grows, Start up founder are finding ways to curve a nich and build future roadmap of their organization’s.
Varun Kashyap, co-founder, Zithara.AI, discusses during an exclusive interview with DigitalCIO, how AI is revolutionizing customer experience in retail.
He says the platform created by the start up known as Zithara’s Customer Behaviour Platform (CBP) is empowering offline retailers to unlock customer insights and drive precision engagement. He also touches on Zithara’s expansion plans.
Now as a startup they are excited about vertical-specific AI models, essentially build for training industry-tuned LLMs for retail.
In the jewellery segment, Zithara.ai has started way back approximately 6-7 years ago, partnering with retailers on this transformation journey. This was done to accelerate sharply over the next 2-3 years, taking into consideration combination of rising gold prices, intensifying competition, and rapidly evolving consumer expectations is making technology adoption no longer optional.
The time to modernize is now say Varun. The more domain-specific context the AI understands, the sharper and more actionable the insights become.
Zithara is also building conversational analytics — where business leaders can simply ask Zithara:
“Which 10 stores saw the highest drop in repeat purchases last month?”
—and receive instant, AI-powered insights and recommendations.
This will democratize data access across organizations, empowering every store manager — not just analysts — to make smarter, faster decisions.
DigitalCIO.in : What made you see the potential in Zithara as an AI platform, particularly as an omnichannel marketing model?
Varun Kashyap: Two core factors drove the inception of Zithara: the size of the market and the magnitude of the problem. When these two variables intersect, they create a transformative opportunity.
In India, retail is witnessing a paradigm shift. Today, only about 7% of Indian retail is classified as modern, while a staggering 93% remains highly traditional.
However, this modern retail sector is expanding rapidly, bringing along operational friction points that demand new-age solutions.
Zithara was conceived to address these small but critical pain points that often exist between retailers and customers. As technology continues to evolve, we believe AI must be thoughtfully and incrementally embedded into solving these challenges — beginning with social media intelligence, timely customer engagement, and democratized access to actionable data.
Today, Zithara actively communicates with over 1.5 million customers every single day, enabling bi-directional, data-driven engagement that directly drives revenue outcomes for our clients.
DigitalCIO.in : As a CRM platform, how does Zithara help businesses better understand customer behavior, especially given the similarities to models used in hotels and airlines?
Varun Kashyap: At the core, all customer relationships are rooted in human connection and psychology. While we can’t alter a brand’s core identity, we can significantly influence brand perception through intelligent, timely communication.
Zithara helps brands answer four essential questions: when to engage, where to engage, through which channel to engage, and how to unify organizational data across silos. Even if an organization experiences complete churn in its sales team, Zithara ensures continuity of customer identity by capturing and centralizing interaction data. In today’s world where face-to-face relationships are increasingly replaced by digital interactions, this consistency is mission-critical.
DigitalCIO.in : Zithara has developed a comprehensive Customer Behaviour Platform (CBP). How does it empower businesses?
Varun Kashyap: The Customer Behaviour Platform is designed to drive measurable business outcomes. It helps increase repeat customer visits, reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC), improve Net Promoter Scores (NPS) through real-time feedback loops, and power customized loyalty programs.
With advanced segmentation capabilities, businesses can launch hyper-targeted campaigns and empower their sales, marketing, and support teams to deliver seamless, personalized experiences — ultimately strengthening brand value and accelerating revenue growth.
DigitalCIO.in : Jewelry retail in India is highly conventional and trust-based. How does digital transformation enhance this segment?
Varun Kashyap: Jewelry retail in India is deeply rooted in cultural tradition, where trust is the most valuable currency. For most consumers, jewelry is not just a product — it is an investment, often emotional and generational.
Yet, the industry is now undergoing a visible digital transformation. Consumers increasingly expect modern, omnichannel experiences. Leading players like Tanishq and other emerging brands recognize that growth demands a balance of tradition and technology.
The opportunity here is vast. India has over 500,000 jewellery retailers, yet 98% of the sector remains unorganized.
Only five national brands exist in the organized space. This leaves enormous headroom for scale, modernization, and digital enablement.
DigitalCIO.in : As a startup, what were the major challenges you faced in the early stages?
Varun Kashyap: The initial hurdle was always product-market fit. Earning trust as a homegrown tech provider in India — without the advantage of a Silicon Valley origin — is particularly difficult. Many retailers were understandably skeptical about entrusting their sensitive data to a young, unknown startup.
Convincing early adopters often meant working without upfront compensation, simply to prove our value. On top of that, building a complex AI product requires both significant time and capital. Without external funding in the early stages, sustainability was an ongoing challenge.
We’re deeply grateful to our co-founders, early team members, investors, and pioneering customers who believed in our vision and helped us navigate these formative challenges.
DigitalCIO.in : What are your expansion plans—both in India and globally?
Varun Kashyap: In India, our primary focus remains on jewellery, real estate, consumer electronics, and emerging D2C brands that are embracing omnichannel models. The domestic market itself is so expansive that even at full capacity, it would take years to fully serve.
Internationally, we’ve already entered the U.S. market and will soon onboard one of our largest clients there. Dubai and Malaysia are next in our expansion roadmap. Presently, we operate across nine Indian states and serve 120 businesses. Our near-term target is to scale to 1,000 businesses, with projected revenue growth of 5–6x in FY2025.
DigitalCIO.in : Can you share a real-time example of how AI and digital integration are improving customer experience in retail?
Varun Kashyap: Take a simple yet powerful scenario: A customer engages with an online ad late at night and initiates a conversation. Instead of waiting for business hours, Zithara’s AI steps in instantly — understanding the customer’s profile, context, and preferences in real-time.
By morning, when a human agent follows up, they are equipped with fully qualified, high-intent leads complete with behavioral insights. This eliminates unnecessary manual filtering and accelerates conversion. In many cases, this intelligent hand-off between AI and human has directly resulted in a 7–8% increase in revenue for our clients.
DigitalCIO.in : Has Zithara secured any funding to support its expansion?
Varun Kashyap: Yes. In January, we successfully raised ₹3.8 crore from HNIs and angel investors. We’ve also achieved EBITDA-positivity over the past quarter, which gives us a solid foundation. To fuel our next phase of expansion, we are now targeting a $1.5 million fundraise by October this year.
DigitalCIO.in : Do you believe Zithara’s model can help businesses achieve double-digit growth through personalized marketing?
Varun Kashyap: Absolutely. Market demand is immense. Frankly, India needs 100 more companies like Zithara to fully serve this emerging opportunity. With the right implementation, businesses can achieve double-digit growth within 6–8 months by leveraging AI-powered personalization.
Our mission is to close the gap between market potential and available solutions — making our capabilities accessible and visible to businesses across the ecosystem.
Q10: Loyalty programs are evolving rapidly. How do you see them transforming in the digital era?
Varun Kashyap: Loyalty today is no longer limited to transactions. Traditionally, points were awarded only for purchases. Now, loyalty extends into every customer touchpoint — whether it’s social media engagement, online reviews, or even physical store visits.
Zithara enables brands to design modern loyalty programs that go beyond discounts — creating experiences that strengthen emotional connection and long-term engagement. The focus is shifting from rewarding purchases to nurturing holistic customer relationships.
DigitalCIO.in : AI models require large datasets to deliver meaningful insights. How does Zithara address data privacy and security for its clients?
Varun Kashyap: Data privacy is central to our platform architecture. All customer data remains fully owned by the retailers themselves. We operate on strict data governance protocols, with enterprise-grade encryption, anonymization layers, and role-based access controls to ensure data confidentiality.
As we scale, we are also investing heavily into privacy-by-design principles and GDPR-compliance readiness — not only for our international expansion, but to proactively meet evolving regulatory landscapes in India as well.
Ultimately, trust is the foundation of both retail relationships and SaaS partnerships — and we take that responsibility very seriously.
DigitalCIO.in : What role does Zithara’s AI engine play in driving personalization at scale?
Varun Kashyap: Our AI engine is designed to abstract complexity for retailers. Instead of requiring teams to manage segmentation or build complex workflows, the AI autonomously monitors customer behavior — purchase frequency, engagement gaps, product affinities — and continuously optimizes engagement journeys.
For example, if a high-value customer misses two consecutive visits, the AI triggers proactive nudges automatically — whether via WhatsApp, SMS, or digital offers. This type of intelligent micro-personalization, delivered at scale, is what drives both higher retention and revenue uplift.
Q13: Many SaaS startups struggle with balancing customization versus standardization. How has Zithara approached this challenge?
Varun Kashyap: That’s a crucial balancing act. From the start, we built Zithara as a highly modular platform — 80% standardized core with 20% configurable layers that allow for vertical-specific customization.
For example, jewellery retail workflows differ from real estate or electronics. But the underlying AI models, campaign engines, and analytics frameworks remain uniform. This hybrid approach allows us to maintain scalability while still offering industry-specific depth that our clients require.
DigitalCIO.in : How does Zithara build long-term stickiness with clients beyond initial deployment?
Varun Kashyap: SaaS adoption isn’t just about software delivery; it’s about becoming part of the client’s growth engine. We invest heavily in customer success — with dedicated account managers, continuous business reviews, and revenue-linked outcome tracking.
Our team works closely with clients to identify new revenue levers, optimize existing customer journeys, and continuously unlock incremental value.
This outcome-driven partnership approach is what transforms us from a technology vendor into a long-term growth partner.
https://zithara.ai/