Mahindra bets big on online retail for SUVs

Around 42 percent of new car buyers research cars online before physically reaching out to dealerships. Expecting this trend to grow, Mahindra & Mahindra has launched a new online platform called Mahindra SYOUV to retail its SUVs.

The Virtual Showroom incorporates a range of features to give potential buyers all the necessary information about Mahindra SUVs. The features on offer include checking stock availability with the nearest dealer, live chat for queries, comparing cars, booking a test drive, handling finance and insurance, and booking your SUV.

Interestingly, it gets one more feature called ‘collaborative exploration’. This enables the buyers to seek out suggestions from their friends over the internet to personalize their SUVs. Moreover, the company has also installed tablets and kiosks at most of the dealerships and is providing Samsung VR devices at doorsteps to give their customers a high-definition virtual experience of what their car would look like.

For the final purchase, Mahindra has a tie-up with various online car-selling portals, along with its own network, M2All, to provide online booking services. After you have purchased the car, you can also use Mahindra’s ‘with you hamesha’ platform to avail all the post-purchase services, such as booking for car servicing, service reminder notifications, instant chat to fix any quick issue, Save-Our-Soul (SOS) service (in case your car gets stalled), their video chat service and online payment service.

Initially, the SYOUV platform is only limited to 20 dealerships located in metro cities. Although Veejay Ram Nakra, Sales and Marketing Head of Mahindra’s Automotive Division, has confirmed that the company will be extending the service to all 300 dealerships by November 2018. Mahindra also aims to increase its sales penetration through online platforms – from the current 8 percent, to 16 percent in the next fiscal.