Tata digital
Super-app storefront
Product designer
2022 - 2024
1 → 2.0
10 min read
Homepage CTR
2.1x
(Driven by "SuperHero")
Cross category
3
(from 1 category usage)
Category visit
20%
(of total visits)
executive summary
my role
product designer
head of design
ankur sardana
timeline
2022 - 2024
release cycle
continuous (v3.5 to v5.0)
From promo surface to customized home
Tata tussle
tata brand categories
25+
total users
120+ million
NeuPass members
116 million
transacting customers
20 million
app downloads
91 million
The Tata Neu paradox: too many masters
Tata’s consumer brands dominate their respective categories, boasting massive physical presence across India. The vision for Tata Neu was to bring all these offline titans into a single, unified digital experience with loyalty reward (NeuPass). But this created a unique friction point. It is natural for every powerhouse brand in the Tata ecosystem to fight for visibility on the app's homepage.
The question we have to answer is whether mapping an internal organizational structure onto the home screen actually serves the user, or if it just adds cognitive load.
1st fold
2nd fold
quick fix
timeframe
1 week
journey
onboarding
prototype
ProtoPie
brand visibility ≠ user intent
If the business struggles to establish a clear hierarchy for its brands, we can pivot our strategy: design can become the decision-making mechanism itself. Shifting from a rigid, stakeholder-driven layout to a modular, customizable experience where the user ultimately decides what matters most.
My theme
Make list
Edit list
My list
From Personality to Storefront
vision workshop
vision
2023
participants
Designers, PMs, CXOs
output
4 product directions
product personality & growth path
workshop was focused on defining a clearer brand identity, sharper market positioning and growth path for the app as a trusted Tata super app.
strategic bets
The team converged on a few strategic bets : simplified commerce, omni + social commerce, loyalty & gamification and chat-based interaction.
User Research
timeline
March 2023
researchers
Tata Digital Design x UserStudy (Agency)
research mode
1 hour user interview
Go extreme with concepts
Black and white extreme concepts with intention to test overall idea or part of idea/widgets resonate with users.
omni + social
Loyalty
E-commerce
chat commerce
Research objective
Identify user behaviours which will help build an ideal e-commerce app storefront and fulfills their expectation from Tata neu
What we invested in vs. what users valued
the home page was heavily invested in the features users cared about least. Stories, live and social commerce, omnichannel offers, while the assets that actually drove behaviour went unrecognised. Users didn't know the brands on Tata Neu were Tata brands. They conflated NeuPass with NeuCoins and couldn't name a single membership benefit. Offers, the reason most of them opened the app, all looked identical.
Top insights
converge
ideation
concept with insights
most celebrated feature
SuperHero Banner
Putting the Tata back in Tata Neu
A storefront rebuilt so that the platform's biggest asset: the Tata name that stops being invisible. Offers no longer float free; they belong to Croma, BigBasket, Tata 1mg, BB Now, each declaring what it is and what NeuCoins earn there. The result is a home page that answers the only two questions research found users arriving with: what's the deal, and who's behind it.
Before
After insights
SuperHero
use cases
personalisation, new launch, tata story
a banner no tata brands own, except Tata Neu.
The SuperHero banner became the most celebrated part of the redesign. By sitting above the hero carousel; the slot every Tata brand competes for it, created editorial space that didn't have to be won.
Personalisation, new launches, and campaign moments all live there without touching contested inventory. And when nothing is happening, it runs a Tata story, so the default state still builds trust in the name.
new launch
final dev
development
v5.0
a banner no tata brands own, except Tata Neu.
The SuperHero banner became the most celebrated part of the redesign. By sitting above the hero carousel; the slot every Tata brand competes for it, created editorial space that didn't have to be won.
Personalisation, new launches, and campaign moments all live there without touching contested inventory. And when nothing is happening, it runs a Tata story, so the default state still builds trust in the name.
flights offer
impact
scale
5000 users
The impact by numbers
4.3 app rating
73% click/visits increased
18% cross brand traffic
takeaways & learnings
Bias
Trust the process
.say hello