Flipkart, Amazon add 80k jobs ahead of festive sale

With the festive season around the corner, India's top ecommerce companies and retailers have trained their guns on hiring a large number of temporary workers to meet the festive rush.

For ecommerce companies, the festive season kicks off from October with Dusshera and Deepavali and goes on till New Year and Makara Sankranthi, and the demand will be across all buckets of ecommerce companies.

Staffing companies project the demand to be above one lakh people during this period.

There is a huge requirement for achieving the last-mile connectivity by top ecommerce companies. Flipkart's Big Billion Day sale and Amazon's Great Indian Festival are set to commence from October 10, Wednesday.

“Over 1 lakh people are working in the ecommerce sector on the payroll, and during the festive season, the requirement just doubles to 2 lakh. Also, ecommerce companies see at least 5X growth during the festival season- beginning October and it goes on till the middle of January,” said Lohit Bhatia, CEO, IKYA Human Capital Solutions, A Quess company.

During this festive season, ecommerce companies sell goods worth around Rs 10,000 crore. This demand will be across all buckets of ecommerce companies.

Amazon has created seasonal positions for 50,000 associates across its India network of fulfillment centres, sortation centres, delivery stations and customer service sites this festive season.

“The duration of contracts varies depending on the nature of the role and the need of the business at a given point in time,” said a spokesperson from Amazon, adding that they have openings for multiple roles across its fulfilment network and customer service sites. Flipkart said that it has added 30,000 jobs in its supply chain and logistics operations.

"By generating employment and enabling our sellers to scale their businesses during this time, we're playing an important role in driving the industry and subsequently, the economy," Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.

On the retail side, big brands require at least 2,000 to 3,000 more people across their branches in India to handle the mad rush during the festival season.

"By the year 2022, the ecommerce sector shall have $200 billion sales. The customer base is spreading towards the Tier 2 and 3 locations and thus the need for the delivery staffs as well, thus a lot of demand from Tier 2,3 as well as rural areas will drive the jobs, with the rise in demand for products and the increase in sales during the later months of the year, salaries have also gone up," Sudeep Kumar Sen, Assistant Vice President, TeamLease Services Limited said.

There is a requirement of at least 15,000 people in Bengaluru alone as temporary workers. For the festive season, people will be hired for three months with an opportunity to earn Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 a month, said Mayur Saraswat, Head of Digital, IT and Telecom Vertical, TeamLease Services Limited.

These temporary workers are aged between 18 and 30 years and are generally above 10th grade. Rakesh Kamble, who works in a leading food delivery company, says he earns around Rs 40,000 a month and that during the festive season, he does at least 10 trips a day and delivers multiple packets each time.

Also, there is a lucrative incentive scheme after achieving minimum order delivery.