M&M puts its products online, launches e-com website M2ALL

The diversified Mahindra Group on Monday entered the digital space with an e-market portal, M2ALL, which would be used to sell its 400 products, including the recently-launched compact utility vehicle TUV 300.

M2ALL.com will be housed in a new company called Mahindra E-Marketplace Ltd, making the Anand Mahindra-led, $17-billion conglomerate join the league of other large Indian business houses that have tapped the digital space to grow businesses.

"Companies have to adapt to changing customer needs," said VS Parthasarathy, chief financial officer of the Group, which employs 200,000 people.

"We not only plan to enable all Mahindra businesses to sell their products and services on M2ALL, but also give other manufacturers and sellers of complementary products and services a unique platform to reach out to our customers," Parthasarathy added.

On M2ALL.com, customers can browse over 400 Mahindra products and services, and currently order over 40 of them, including vehicles, real estate, gensets and two-wheelers among others.

Most businesses see a growing percentage of users conducting transactions over the Internet as ownership of smartphones and computers is rising sharply in India. A Goldman Sachs report released on Monday said that India's economy could gain from over 300 million more Internet users by 2020.

Recently, Tatas earmarked an investment of more than ₹ 1,000 crore to promote three digital ventures, while the Aditya Birla Group is mentoring independent start-up promoters to drive growth in its existing businesses.