Lots of potential, but it’s not all smooth

Dubbed as a ‘super app’, one which harnesses the power of all of Tata’s biggest brands under one roof, Tata Neu was launched on April 7. The idea behind the app is simple: Whether you want to want to purchase groceries from Big Bazaar or pick up a kurta from Westside, or you are looking to book tickets for your next vacation, you don’t have to switch apps. There’s also implicit trust since all sales are backed the Tata Group and its various brands. So one does not have to worry about the seller, unlike on other platforms which have often have third-party sellers.
Tata Neu will also club all points, rewards from these sales into what’s called as ‘NeuCoins’. At present, each ‘NeuCoin’ is equal to Re 1, and these coins are valid for one year. So somewhere perhaps your big purchases could help you get more rewards, and hopefully let you buy other things for free. Here’s my experience of the Tata Neu app so far.
Tata Neu app first impressions: The user interface
I downloaded the Tata Neu app on my iOS device a while back, though at that point it was not open to the general public. It was only today that I logged in with my mobile number and got access to the full app. Before this, I have used the TataCliq app for some purchases.
Once you open the app, the top banners greet you with the day’s biggest offers, discounts, with each core Tata brand being highlighted from the Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) and Big Bazaar to Croma and 1mg.
The Tata Neu app packs a lot of features in one space. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)
Just below it, you can see the options for Tata Pay service, which is the company’s own UPI-based payment services. The Scan and Pay, Send Money, Pay Bills and Finance options are visible and below that one sees the NeuCoins banner.
Below it is the Explore option, which has all the categories mentioned. I would have liked the categories option to be a bit more prominent, perhaps placed higher than the Tata Pay features. Scrolling further down shows a banner for NeuPass, which has details about the NeuCoins. Further below are the offers on products such as phones, TWS earbuds, groceries, etc.
The app has five tabs at the bottom of the homepage. The main home tab, the Tata Pay tab, which takes you to the payment service, the NeuPass which shows your coins and also the badges for each brand. The app shows I have a privilege badge for Croma, a copper for IHCL (Indian Hotels Company Limited), and base for BigBasket, Westside and 1MG. For AirAsia India it shows Aviator while for TataCliQ, it shows CLiQPerQ next to my tier.
I would have liked some more explanation for these. Since I’ve never used BigBasket, Westside and 1MG, I understand the base tier. I’m not sure why the privilege badge for Croma. It would have made sense if Tata explained each tier a bit.
Tata Neu app’s key feature is the NeuCoins, which is a rewards program. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/ Indian Express)
Finally, there’s a dedicated tab for Offers and another for Stories. The latter is mostly editorial content, while Offers has all the deals and discounts, across categories.
There’s also a little menu option on the top right corner, from where you can access your profile, saved addresses, orders, transactions, and manage security for the app. Tata Neu lets you use Face ID on iOS to login to the app. The Help section is also part of this menu. I would have preferred if this menu section also had all the categories led here as a one tap option to make the navigation easier.
Tata Neu app first impressions: My thoughts after using it
The interface feels a little cluttered. There’s too much going on, and it often gets confusing during navigation. It is also not all smooth, and there were some error messages I got during navigation.
One thing to keep in mind is that when you tap on each category, it triggers the website-like experience for that brand in the app. For example when you tap on Fashion, and say tap on Westside, it triggers the Westside branding and experience within the app.
When loading the Westside shopping experience, the images would load slowly. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)
This also means that at times the loading is slow, and the experience a bit buggy. For instance when browsing for clothes on Westside, the images took time to load. Then when I browsed categories inside the Westside segment, there was some noticeable stutter.
After I had added some items to the cart, it took a few taps to get the app to respond and open the cart. And when I tried removing an item, the app just crashed and gave an error. In fact, I got an error even when I tapped on some of the offers I saw on the main homepage. So clearly there’s a flood of users, and the app needs to build up on server capacity to handle these issues.
There were a number of occasions when the app showed an error. Screenshots take from Tata Neu.
But my biggest peeve was when I finally got to the checkout page for Westside. Now ideally the Westside section should have pulled my address from the Tata Neu app. But this did not happen. The app asked me to add address, mobile number, even pin code again, which I found a little annoying. I’m hoping these issues will be resolved as more users give their feedback.
The idea behind the app is no doubt interesting, and perhaps much needed for the Tata Group. It will be useful for those consumers who have been buying many products from all of the different brands under the Tata Group. But the app will need some ironing out, given there are teething issues.