Tata Cliq News: Tata Cliq to be integrated with Tata Neu, exits electronics business

Tatas' online retail platform Tata Cliq is likely to be integrated with Tata Neu super app and made a subsidiary of Tata Digital as the group seeks to consolidate its major ecommerce ventures under this entity, officials close to the development told ET.

At present, Tata Cliq is run by Tata UniStore that is jointly owned by Tata Industries and the group's lifestyle retail venture Trent .

Tata Cliq has exited the consumer electronics category, which formed 50-55% of its business, and its consumer electronics, smartphones and appliances division has been integrated with Croma, Tatas' flagship consumer electronics retail chain, officials said.

Croma will be the primary entity enabling sales of electronics on Tata Neu app.

"The group is still evaluating how to position Tata Cliq," said senior executive at one of the group companies said. "For instance, its presence in categories like electronics was a conflict of interest for Tata Neu and Croma and hence it had to exit this category to focus on lifestyle and luxury categories where it has built a niche."

Emails sent to Tata Cliq and Tata Digital remained unanswered till press time Thursday.

The holding company of Infiniti Retail, which owns Croma, has been recently changed from Tata Sons to Tata Digital, which is becoming the front face for all ecommerce business of the group. Tata Digital has also acquired e-grocer BigBasket and e-pharmacy 1mg over the last year.

The Croma app is now only available on Tata Neu. It will continue to be an independent online seller as well.

Tata Cliq, too, will now move under the Tata Neu app, officials said. The move is part of Tata Group’s efforts to bring heft to Tata Neu and integrate synergistic businesses under one single umbrella for scale.

Executives said Tata Cliq may pivot its business on luxury or beauty and the challenge for it would be to differentiate itself from rivals such as Myntra in fashion and Nykaa in the beauty space.

Tata Cliq also has another online platform, Tata Luxury, and may explore the possibility of combining the two to remove duplication.

Tata Cliq sells a variety of product categories and brands and has a large emphasis on fashion. However, electronics, home appliances, and smartphones were seen as the big ticket play.

As per latest regulatory filings, the Tatas infused Rs 11,872 crore into Tata Digital last fiscal – the highest ever fund allocation the group has made into ecommerce in any single year to help the company build a war chest to take on established ecommerce rivals such as Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart.