Tata Group aims to connect with consumers digitally in diverse categories, says Mukesh Bansal

Tata Group will soon unveil its strategy on how it plans to digitally reach consumers across various categories by bringing assets together, Mukesh Bansal, President of Tata Digital, said.

In an interaction with Rajan Anandan, MD, Sequoia Capital, at an event organised by Nasscom, Mukesh drove home the point of the salt-to-steel conglomerate's connect with consumers across multiple categories, including airlines, jewellery, fashion, and automobile. “We are looking at how do we bring all these assets together,” he remarked.

Mukesh joined Tata Digital after the Tata Group invested $75 million in his second entrepreneurial venture – Cure.fit last year.

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According to Mukesh, Tata Group remains as innovative as ever, saying “I feel right at home as now there is an opportunity to learn how to build a sustainable business.”

Tata Group has already started building a super app, which can bring its multiple consumer-facing businesses onto a single platform. It already has a digital retail presence with the Tata Cliq fashion brand.

Mukesh Bansal is deeply connected with the digital retail industry, with his first venture being Flipkart-owned Myntra. However, he believes there is still a long way to go for building a sustainable retail online business, as the purchasing power of Indian consumers is still at low spending value.

“Despite the size of our internet user base, the spending power is concentrated among the 10 million households,” Mukesh said.

He added the next big challenge for all retail digital players is to take their services and product to the next 40-50 million households, which would require them to address a different price point to unlock the potential of digital commerce.

“There is a need to completely rethink the price points,” Mukesh noted.

He observed the profitability quotient for the digital retail segment is largely coming from private labels, advertisements, and not so much from the core business.