E-com firms ramp up hiring delivery staff to meet festival season demand

Companies such as Flipkart, Amazon, Meesho and Myntra are gearing up to host their biggest festive sale events without covid restrictions for the first time in three years

For Archna Ramsing Darsimbe, the upcoming festival season is an excellent opportunity for her and her team to earn over and above their regular incomes. As a sole earner of the family and mother of two kids, the augmented pay and additional perks further add to the financial independence. "These opportunities help in securing a good future for my children," says Darsimbe, who would be part of the delivery team at Walmart-owned online fashion retailer Myntra.

Darsimbe is among thousands of direct and indirect workers hired by e-commerce firms, such as Flipkart, Amazon, Meesho and Myntra, to cater to small towns and cities to sell their products after Covid-19 has accelerated the shift to e-commerce.

These companies are gearing up to host their biggest sale events this weekend without covid restrictions for the first time in almost three years.

During the season between October and December, companies will add 20 per cent to their current workforce, with a pay scale 8-10 per cent higher than last year, according to staffing firm TeamLease.

"Overall, 500,000 jobs are expected to be added. During pre-pandemic in 2019, about 100,000 such jobs were created in the same period," says Ajoy Thomas, vice president and business head at TeamLease Services. "Hiring will pick up by 20-25 per cent during festivities, led by e-commerce, quick commerce and logistics firms," he added.

At Flipkart, hiring is happening across the facilities — about 50,000 seasonal jobs will be added, taking the workforce to 250,000.

"For this festival season, we have added 50,000 new off-role and on-role employees," says Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy. "For the whole year, Flipkart is hiring about 250,000 compared to 200,000 people last year. This is a massive increase in employment generation," says Krishnamurthy. 

Flipkart's chief rival, Amazon, is also scaling up its infrastructure and hiring to meet demand. One such initiative is launching its all-women delivery station in India, operated by a delivery service partner in Andhra Pradesh's Rajahmundry. It will provide job opportunities to the region's women. Amazon also launched the Northeast's first all-women delivery station in Mizoram's Champhai, close to the India-Myanmar border. The company has six all-women delivery stations across India -- Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram and two in Kerala.

"We are in a much better place in terms of talent," says Manish Tiwary, country manager, India consumer business, Amazon India. "The good news is you're not having the challenges we had earlier in sourcing people."

E-commerce retailers led by Amazon and Flipkart are expected to garner sales worth $11.8 billion, more than double the pre-pandemic figure of $5 billion in 2019, according to a report by consulting firm Redseer. This year's numbers are projected to increase by 28 per cent from 2021, which saw sales of about $9.2 billion in the festival season.

Myntra said it had created over 16,000 direct and indirect seasonal employment opportunities through its partners. "We didn't face the issue in terms of manpower and delivery talent," says Nandita Sinha, CEO of Myntra.

Myntra's ramp-up includes adding over 6,300 personnel to fulfil demand across first- and mid-mile delivery and 3,000 personnel to cater to last-mile delivery. Of this total number, 2,500 are women, and 300 are differently-abled personnel, fulfilling roles across functions such as sorting, grading and packing across key major hubs. One among them is Bimalendu Maji, who is differently abled.

"Understanding my need for flexibility due to my restricted movement owing to my artificial leg, the support that I have gotten from my peers and seniors is unparalleled," says Maji.

SoftBank-backed internet commerce firm Meesho expects 80 per cent of its orders to come from small towns and cities. Meesho does shipments through third-party logistics (3PL) players such as Ecom Express, Delhivery and Xpressbees. "Around 250,000 seasonal jobs are expected to be created across the 3PL ecosystem," says Utkrishta Kumar, CXO-Business at Meesho.

Also, tech-led logistics solutions provider Ecom Express will be onboarding more than 50,000 delivery partners by September-end under its flagship programme, 'Ecom Sanjeev'. The company expects a spike in e-commerce order deliveries during the festival season and seeks to strengthen its last-mile capabilities further.

E-Commerce employment

500,000+ jobs will be created across e-commerce companies in the festive season.

100,000 such jobs were created in the same period.

50,000 new off-role and on-role employees were added by Flipkart this festive season.

16,000 direct and indirect seasonal employment opportunities created by Myntra.

250,000 seasonal jobs are expected to be created across the 3PL ecosystem by Meesho.

50,000 delivery partners to be onboarded by Ecom Express.

$11.8 billion expected sales of e-commerce firms this festive season compared to $5 billion in 2019.