E-commerce industry plans to hire in big numbers this festival season

Last year in October, Amazon India said it created more than 1,00,000 seasonal job opportunities across its operations network for the Indian festive season

India’s e-commerce industry is planning to hire in big numbers this festival season to cater to an estimated 35 per cent surge in sales. It might onboard as many as 1 million gig workers and 250,000 contractual workers, suggests a report by TeamLease Services.

Industry sources see companies like Flipkart, Amazon and Meesho, as well as quick commerce ones like Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart, creating hundreds of thousands of seasonal jobs for the upcoming festival season.

“Meesho aims to enable about 250,000 seasonal job opportunities through its partnership with third-party logistics players like Ecom Express, Delhivery, Shadowfax, Xpressbees and Valmo,” says Sourabh Pandey, general manager for fulfilment and experience. “Over 60 per cent of these opportunities will be in Tier-III and -IV regions. These roles will primarily be for first-mile, middle-mile and delivery associates responsible for tasks like delivery picking, sorting, loading, unloading and return inspections.”

The TeamLease report also says all major quick commerce companies are expanding into new cities and diver­sifying beyond groceries into electronics, beauty, home decor, wellness, and other general merchandise. Having achieved the milestone of 2 million daily orders last financial year, the industry now aims to surpass the record this festival season, the report adds.

Balasubramanian A, senior vice-president and business head at TeamLease Services, highlights: “E-commerce will drive sales and fuel job creation on a massive scale. This hiring boom not only underlines the sector's critical role in creating jobs but also its substantial contribution to India’s vision of beco­ming a $5 trillion economy by 2025.” He further says: “Projections indicate that the inclusive nature of the sector will be evident by 2026, with Tier-II, -III and -IV cities and rural India driving more than 60 per cent of e-commerce demand.”

Zepto, which raised $665 million in a recent funding round that doubled its valuation to $3.6 billion, also plans to hire around 500 people across engineering, product, category, growth, and marketing roles. The company aims to double its count of dark stores to 700 by March 2025.

Flipkart, which was last year expecting to generate over 100,000 jobs across its supply chain — fulfilment centres, sortation centres and delivery hubs — did not respond to Business Standard’s queries on its hiring plans.

An Amazon India spokesperson said: “We create seasonal jobs every festival season. We will share more information over the next few weeks.” In October, it created more than 100,000 seasonal jobs across its operations network for the festival season.

Zomato-owned Blinkit plans to continue with its expansion spree at the cost of lower short-term margins this year. 

Chief Executive Officer Albinder Dhindsa recently said Blinkit was aiming to increase its dark store count from 639 at present to 2,000 by the end of 2026.