Tata Cliq targets becoming India’s largest e-commerce retailer

Tata Group’s ecom arm, Tata Cliq is looking to be India’s biggest retailer in the online space. The etailer is rolling out major discounting initiatives and hoping to give tough competition to larger e-commerce players viz, Amazon and Flipkart. If Amazon gave the world e-commerce, Flipkart made it mainstream in India.

Tata Cliq is enhancing its online presence with spending on digital marketing and heavily discounting products. As Amazon and Flipkart continue to grow, and with Reliance Retail planning to enter the market later this year, the pressure is on the medium to large sized e-commerce firms such as Tata Cliq to stand out.

Tata Cliq sells a variety of product and brands and has a big emphasis on fashion. However, it is the electronics, home appliances, and smartphone sections that the business is most heavily discounting at present with prices lower than rivals Amazon and Flipkart in many cases. However, some worry discounting items too heavily in the hope of drawing customers could cause an unsustainable price war, as has happened before.

The CEO of Tata UniStore, Ashutosh Pandey, had earlier said while there will be discounts and it will not burn pockets. The brand will not be the cheapest but the most authentic place to shop. This suggests heavy discounting will not become the main strategy of the brand but more of a short term one.

Tata Cliq started its operation in 2016 named by Tata UniStore and reported sales of Rs 12 crore ($1.8 million) for the 2016-17 financial year, with a loss of Rs 162 crore ($24.4 million).