Big Billion Days to create 70,000 seasonal jobs in festive season: Flipkart

Walmart-owned Flipkart said it will help generate over 70,000 direct and lakhs of indirect seasonal jobs in the country ahead of the festive season and its Big Billion Days (BBD) sale

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Tuesday said it will help generate over 70,000 direct and lakhs of indirect seasonal jobs in the country ahead of the festive season and its Big Billion Days (BBD) sale.

The Bengaluru-based company said while direct job opportunities will be created across Flipkart's supply chain, including roles like delivery executives, pickers, packers and sorters, there will also be additional indirect jobs created at Flipkart's seller partner locations and kiranas.

This will be further supplemented by job creation in ancillary industries including vendor locations, and freight partners, as the entire ecosystem scales up for the festive season, a statement said.

"The expansion and strengthening of the supply chain will help create a robust system enabling millions of new e-commerce users to shop online seamlessly as lakhs of ecosystem players gear up for the festive season," it added.

E-commerce companies see a large chunk of their business coming in during the festive sales and they make significant investments ahead of time to ramp up their capacity to be able to handle the spike in orders.

Last year, Flipkart and its rival Amazon had announced creation of over 1.4 lakh temporary jobs across supply chain, last-mile connectivity and customer support in preparation for their festive sales.

Flipkart said the "complexity and scale" of its BBD sale requires investments for capacity, storage, sorting, packaging, human resources, training and delivery that helps generate additional employment during the festive season.

"This year, Flipkart is employing nearly 70,000 people in its supply chain, along with generating lakhs indirect jobs at its seller and other ecosystem partners' locations," it added.

The onboarding of more than 50,000 kiranas by Flipkart for last-mile delivery, which was announced last week, will also create thousands of seasonal jobs to deliver millions of packages this festive season, it said.

"We are focused on creating impactful partnerships that offer great consumer experience while creating additional opportunities for progress of the entire ecosystem as it scales for the BBD, Amitesh Jha, Senior Vice-President, Ekart and Marketplace, Flipkart, said.

As a front runner in e-commerce, Flipkart's training and investment in the workforce is widely recognised, and contributes to skill development and enhances employability, he added.

Flipkart is undertaking training programs for its direct hires in various aspects of the supply chain through a mix of classroom and digital training, enhancing their understanding of supply chain management.

These include customer service, delivery, installation and safety and sanitisation measures along with the handling of hand-held devices.

The training during this period will help impart future-ready skills for the participating workforce, enabling career progression in the fast-growing e-commerce industry in India, Flipkart said.

For seller partners, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and artisans - who also start preparing for the festive season months in advance - Flipkart provides separate training in the area of warehouse management, packaging and more.

The entire process of hiring and upskilling is being done following the government's National Skill Development Mission.

In a separate statement, Flipkart said it will now enable customers to get their goods and service tax identification number (GSTIN) on their invoices, thereby allowing them to claim input tax credit on their purchases.

"In a first of many initiatives towards enabling online commerce for businesses and enterprises, the capability to allow GSTIN on their invoices will help millions of business entities - to claim input tax credit on their business related purchases, saving up to 28 per cent on their purchases," the statement said.

The platform will service different types and sizes of organisations across corporates, offices attached to facilities like manufacturing and warehousing, clinics, law firms, consultancies and institutes including service organisations like schools, colleges, hospitals, banks, salons amongst others.

Capabilities such as GST invoicing for office-related purchases can further help these organisations save money and re-allot resources appropriately.

Flipkart said it has seen an average query of about 4,000 per month seeking such capabilities to support their businesses.

To avail GST input tax credit, businesses need to choose a product which has GST-enabled sellers, add their GSTIN details during checkout and claim the GST invoice to claim the benefit.