Applied AI · CPG & Retail Commerce
cpgretail.ai is the applied-AI practice of Abhinav Verma — a senior digital-commerce operator who builds the systems, not just the strategy decks.
The framework
One chain runs from the factory gate to the customer, across every route to market — general trade, modern trade, DTC, marketplaces, omni. A practitioner's framework walks it stage by stage: the problem, the playbook, and the honest read on where AI earns its keep and where it's theatre.
↺ from the factory gate to the customer — and back
The operating principle behind everything on this site
The systems
Conversational BI · In active development · Working demo
A conversational business-intelligence system for FMCG and retail. A conductor agent orchestrates a dedicated analytics engine and a marketing engine.
Every number is computed deterministically and gated before it reaches the user — the AI writes the narrative, never the arithmetic. Demonstrated on a 4-million-row, multi-country retail dataset.
E-commerce audit engine · Functional · In active development
An honest audit engine for any storefront: site performance, structured data and search-readiness, accessibility risk — measured, not estimated.
Built on an honesty floor: every score traces to a real measurement. The AI prioritises and explains what was measured; it never invents a number.
The record
Largest regional P&L supported, as first dedicated APAC omni-channel owner.
Incremental revenue from a regional omni-channel program.
Consecutive months of YoY digital growth in the current mandate, at ~27% p.a.
Markets delivered in, across 20+ years in APAC & ANZ commerce.
The practitioner
Head of eCommerce & Customer Service at Phoon Huat Group, running a multi-brand digital business as a $15M P&L, reporting to the CEO.
Over 20+ years across APAC and ANZ he has built and run digital commerce for premium retail, consumer health and FMCG — from first regional omni-channel programs to profitable D2C, loyalty relaunches, and in-house applied-AI tooling.
The systems on this site come from that operating seat: problems found on the P&L, solved with software, and held to the same standard as a board number.
CPG (FMCG) · Grocery · Retail · Fashion & Lifestyle
Writing
An ongoing weekly series — 7 articles and counting — documenting real operating problems solved with AI: the traditional approach, the AI-assisted approach, the results, and the lessons.
Also: three published CPG whitepapers, and 200+ editions of an internal weekly CPG & Retail newsletter authored at ITC Infotech.
Latest · Demand Planning
Retail Forecasting Gets Smarter: AI + Python for Demand TrendsRolling 12-month SKU forecasts — AI for guidance, Python for execution. 5-min read.