Tata Sons has selected Puneet Chhatwal, CEO of Indian Hotels, and Sunil D’Souza, CEO of Tata Consumer, to join Tata Digital’s board as part of a plan to enhance the company’s expertise in consumer business.

This appointment comes after Naveen Tahilyani resigned as MD and CEO of Tata Digital in May.

In another development, Ankur Verma has been appointed as the interim chairman of Croma, the group's consumer electronics retail chain.

For the time being, Tata Digital will function as a board-managed organization until a new CEO is appointed, according to reports.

The delay in the appointment has been attributed to the crisis caused by the recent Air India incident, they mentioned. Group chairman N Chandrasekaran is actively overseeing both Air India and Tata Digital, they further noted.

The reshuffle comes in response to feedback indicating that the company had an excess of finance-oriented members and a deficiency of leaders with significant consumer business expertise.

The inclusion of Chhatwal and D’Souza is anticipated to enhance the digital business with substantial consumer and commercial insights, according to sources cited.

Aarthi Subramanian recently departed from the Tata Digital board after her appointment as COO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

Tata Digital’s portfolio encompasses online retailer BigBasket, the e-pharmacy 1mg, fashion e-commerce division Tata Cliq, and electronics store Croma.

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Tahilyani, who assumed the role of MD and CEO in February of the previous year, resigned shortly after a year. His mandate was to unify the digital portfolio and address the struggling super app strategy.

In 2019, Pratik Pal from TCS was brought in to lay the foundations. Tahilyani was appointed to steer the next phase, while Myntra cofounder Mukesh Bansal was the lone, high-profile external hire in 2021.

Tata Digital, which operates the super app Tata Neu, was repositioned from a centralised super app to a shared services later, while independent verticals such as BigBasket, Croma and 1mg retained separate leadership. Chandrasekaran had reportedly grown impatient with Neu’s slow traction.

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Tata Digital reported an aggregate gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 37,355 crore in FY24, according to the Tata Sons annual report, with a user base of 140 million. Yet, adoption has remained limited.

Tata Neu accounted for less than 10 percent of gross sales for BigBasket and 1mg, pointing to weak cross-platform traction. Backend integration was paused to preserve brand identity and the user experience.

To push growth, Tata Digital recently piloted a quick commerce service called Flash, integrated into the Tata Neu app. The initiative aims to tap into the fast-growing, 10-minute delivery segment dominated by Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto.