Following the news that Tata Group’s super app Tata Neu is set for launch on 7 April 2022;

Shivani Gupta, Senior Payment Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view:

“Tata Neu will provide customers with a wide array of online services across verticals including grocery, fashion, electronics, healthcare, travel and accommodation through one single app. This will position Tata Group to compete with Amazon and Paytm. The ‘super app’ integrates all popular online Tata brands including online grocery brand – BigBasket; online pharmacy – 1mg; electronics retailer – Croma; flight booking services for Air Asia and Air India; and beverage brand Starbucks; as well as services offered by its existing ecommerce platform – Tata Cliq under one umbrella. This will enable customers to shop from different brands through a single platform.

“Indian e-commerce market has rapidly transformed in the last few years, supported by increase in internet and smartphone penetration, rise in digital literacy among consumers and government’s digital push. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated this trend with increasing number of consumers switching to online channel.

“According to GlobalData’s E-Commerce Analytics, e-commerce payments in India are expected to grow by 21.5% to reach INR5.5 trillion (US$73.3bn) in 2022. They are forecasted to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 18.3% between 2021 and 2025, to reach INR8.8 trillion (US$118.0bn) in 2025.

“Tata group is also venturing into digital payments space by offering UPI-based Tata Pay integrated within Tata Neu app. This will allow consumers to make payments to online and offline merchants as well as P2P transfers and bill payments.

“E-commerce payments in India are dominated by alternative payment solutions such as Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Paytm. According to GlobalData’s 2021 Financial Services Consumer Survey, alternative payments account for 59.5% of the total e-commerce transaction value.  Amazon Pay is the largest with 16.4% share.

“Tata Pay is expected to benefit from the large customer base of Tata’s online platforms, providing it an opportunity to gain sizeable market share in the highly competitive Indian digital payment space. Through its digital payments solution, Tata Neu looks to replicate the success of Amazon Pay in India.”