Tata Cliq targeting affluent consumer base: Tata Industries director

KOLKATA: Tata Group’s e-commerce platform Tata Cliq is targeting the affluent consumer base and not just the discount seeker, a senior group executive said.

In a recent emailed response to ET, Tata Industries executive director KRS Jamwal said Cliq has carved a unique space for itself with its focus on brands that represent premium and quality. Tata Industries is the parent of Tata Unistore Ltd which runs the Tata Cliq platform.

Jamwal said Tata Cliq is targeting a slightly mature consumer base of 25 years plus and therefore talking to slightly affluent and aspirational customer. The company serves this segment by treating brands as symbiotic partners and key stakeholder, he said.

“We believe that brands have started seeing this value and have trusted us with their store catalogues - which are usually not given to other e-commerce platforms. This is different from other platforms where the focus is on discounts and category selling,” Jamwal said.

Jamwal said the established way of doing e-commerce business such as largest catalogue, fastest delivery and lowest price is just one way.

“We are innovating an alternate ecommerce model that will speak to audiences who prioritise trust, brands and new launches as much as value. This reflects in our choice of brands/products, cataloguing, editorial content, site merchandising and communication,” he said.

Tata Cliq competes against Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart in the Indian e-commerce market. However, unlike its overseas rivals, it is still a small player though it has off-late started experimenting with the inventory model to gain scale faster.

Jamwal said the business is also exploring a geo-fencing feature. This feature activates the moment a customer is near the physical store of one of the featured brands and provides him with new launches and offers that would be available at that store.

“In addition, to improve shopping convenience, the business is experimenting a scan and buy feature. This would allow Tata Cliq app users to do transactions on the move by scanning banners, digital screens, and more, displayed across locations,” he said.

Jamwal said the company’s leadership team devotes much time listening to customer calls and also writing root cause fix documents for each group of customer complaints.

“These are sometimes even shared with the customers. Today more than 10% of our customers have shopped more than five times with us,” he said.