Aisshpra Gems & Jewels has concluded the inaugural edition of Retail Connect 2026, a two-day initiative in Gorakhpur aimed at integrating frontline retail teams into the merchandise buying process. The programme brought together more than 40 jewellery manufacturers and vendor partners with over 80 buyers representing the retailer’s 17 stores.

Built around the theme, Learn. Align. Curate., the initiative focused on incorporating customer insights gathered by store teams into merchandise planning. According to the company, the objective was to strengthen product selection by combining commercial decision-making with feedback from frontline retail professionals.

The first day centred on learning and cross-functional collaboration. Store Managers participated in sessions led by the heads of Operations, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Merchandising and other business functions. The discussions were designed to provide store leaders with a broader understanding of how different departments contribute to operational and merchandising decisions.

On the second day, more than 80 buyers, including Store Managers and top-performing frontline retail professionals, evaluated jewellery collections presented by over 40 manufacturers and vendor partners. To maintain impartiality, vendors remained anonymous throughout the evaluation process, allowing designs to be assessed on customer appeal, commercial relevance and market potential rather than supplier identity.

According to the company, the exercise aimed to enable frontline teams to influence future collections, help merchandising and buying teams better understand regional customer preferences, and identify designs with the strongest market acceptance before commercial negotiations. It stated that the process was intended to make assortment planning more responsive to customer demand across its 17 markets.

Speaking on the occasion, Director Vaibhav Saraf and Saumitra Saraf said, “Retail Connect is more than an annual event—it is a new way of thinking about merchandising. Our customers speak to us every day through our store teams. By bringing our frontline retail teams into the product selection process, we are ensuring that customer insights directly influence the collections we curate. We believe this collaborative approach will help us make better merchandising decisions and serve our customers even better.”

The company plans to establish Retail Connect as an annual platform bringing together store teams, business leaders and vendor partners for learning, collaboration and merchandise curation.