NeuCoins, the loyalty programme by India’s oldest conglomerate Tata for its super app Tata Neu, will go beyond its own ecosystem of companies in the future, N Chandrasekaran said at a conference on Thursday.
Tata Neu, which was launched by Tata Digital on April 7, has already been downloaded 2.2 million times. Presently, the superapp includes Tata’s brands like Air Asia, Bigbasket, Croma, IHCL, Qmin, Starbucks, Tata 1MG, Tata Cliq, Tata Play, and Westside, among others.
In the future, it will have offerings from other companies, which are not a part of Tata Group.
The upcoming exclusive membership for the superapp, NeuPass will also go beyond Tata Group, Chandrasekaran added.
“The evolution of that will proceed along the lines of what we have to meet. It will totally depend on what need we are trying to fulfill for our customers,” he added. “It will be customer-driven, not contract driven.”
N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons
The idea to get business beyond its ecosystem will be a challenging one for it will include competitors to the brands already available on the app, however, the company insisted that it already has a roadmap.
“We have numerous brands which are outside Tata group listed,” said Mukesh Bansal, President of Tata Digital.
Cromā, the consumer electronic retail chain, 1mg, the online pharmacy, and BigBasket, the grocery delivery app, already include products from a variety of brands.
“There is already open architecture in terms of consumer choice available,” Mukesh added.
“As we think of any category that evolves, we will add more brands,” he added. “It will be a continuous process, not a major milestone.”
Tata Neu will add new categories every quarter.
“Ultimately, the selection criteria will be that the consumer must get all choices available,” Mukesh said. “We want to be a consumer-first platform and service every single need in the life of consumers. That will drive our category and selection strategy.”
The app, which has been in the works for the last two years, offers its consumers a combination of product and service commerce and financial services. It will onboard new categories and will partner with new brands, if required.
“Our aim is to become a profitable business, driving growth, simplifying the life of the customers,” said Pratik Pal, CEO of Tata Digital. He added that the company has worked out a “strong commercial model with all the brand companies” but did not elaborate on the revenue model.
Tata Digital acquired a stake in three startups—BigBasket, Cure.fit, and 1mg—in the first half of 2021.
Mukesh said that while there has been a lot of investor interest, but right now that is not where the focus is.
“Tata Group looks at things very long term. For the coming quarters, we are focused on getting our value proposition absolutely right, strengthening our foundation and evolving our business model,” Mukesh said.
In the future, “Whatever investments we have to do, we will do it,” Pratik added.
