With a large number of its customers going online to buy goods and services, the $16.9 billion Mahindra Group has finally forayed into e-commerce space with the launch of its online marketplace M2ALL.com. This venture will complement its existing sales and distribution network, top officials have said.
This e-marketplace which was launched on Monday, to begin with, will offer a range of Mahindra products and services and has already started taking bookings for the newly-launched Mahindra TUV 300, the compact sports utility vehicle from the Mahindra stable.
Mahindra e-Market Private Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, owns this e-commerce venture which has been developed under the guidance of Mahindra Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) VS Parthasarathy.
Mr Parthasarathy has been named as the Chairman of this venture and Vijay S. Mahajan heads it. A small team of 10 people are involved in this project and more are expected to join soon.
Enhanced buying experience
"The new digital platform will offer our customers an enhanced buying experience that combined the speed and convenience of e-commerce transactions with the trust and reliability associated with the Mahindra Group," Mr. Parthasarathy said while unveiling the new venture.
He declined to reveal the quantum of investment in this venture as well as the targeted sales volume in the next few years.
“The potential is huge. We are not only planning to enable all Mahindra businesses to sell their products and services on M2ALL, but also giving other manufacturers and sellers of complementary products and services, a unique platform to reach out to our customers.” Mr. Parthasarathy said.
At the moment one can book a Mahindra house, a Mahindra two-wheeler and a Mahindra generator set on this website. Group company Mahindra First Choice, which deals with used vehicles, has also come on board. In two years all products and services of the Mahindra group will be available on this marketplace, top officials have said.
Browse 400, order up to 40
On M2ALL, customers can browse over 400 Mahindra products and services and can order 40 of them.
"The portal works on the 'click and brick' model with the products being ordered online will be delivered by our partners including dealers, distributors and logistics teams. Basically we will use the existing channel for delivery of products and at the same time we are building capability to improve delivery,” Mr Parthasarathy said.
No deep discounts
He said that the portal would not offer deep discounts to aggressively sell products at the cost of showrooms and stores. "Products and services will be similarly priced," he said. "The idea is to combine the strengths of the physical and virtual world," he added.
Mahindras have truly realised the importance of the e-commerce segment in India which is growing by 47 per cent year on year and is estimated to reach the $50 billion sales mark by 2020. So it is seeking this opportunity.
