300,000 E-commerce jobs: In view of the upcoming festive season, e-tailing majors such as Amazon and Flipkart, as well as third-party logistics firms, are ramping up delivery capabilities by investing in warehousing infrastructure and hiring additional on-ground staff.
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With the pandemic pushing the needle towards digital, online festival sales are expected to touch $7 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV), and lead to the creation of 300,000 jobs, said consulting firm Redseer.
Daily e-commerce shipments in India have grown from 3.7 million in the pre-COVID months to 5.1 million in August-September. Daily shipments are set to touch 22 million during the festivities, shows RedSeer data. In the year-ago, daily shipments were at 12 million.
Expecting bumper sales this year, e-tailers are stepping up hiring primarily across the supply chain and logistics functions.
Walmart-owned Flipkart had recently said that it will hire 70,000 executives for supply chain operations ahead of the festive season and the flagship Big Billion Days sale event in October.
Flipkart is already training new hires on its digital initiatives across customer service, delivery, installation and safety, and sanitization standards. Rival Amazon India, too, is ramping up it’s hiring across supply-chain functions. To speed up deliveries, Amazon has set up 200 new stations across the country before the festive sales.
RedSeer Consulting estimated that 60% of new hiring will be in delivery and logistics, with the remaining driven by customer service and warehousing functions. E-commerce platforms will constitute 70% of the overall hiring this festive season, while logistics firms, such as Delhivery, Ecomm Express, and Shadowfax, will drive the rest of the job creation.
“E-commerce logistics will have to cater to the changing expectations of customers. On one end, metro shoppers don’t mind paying premiums for quicker deliveries, while value shoppers in Tier 1 cities focus on good deals and are ready to wait an extra day or two. Hence, e-commerce firms will have to balance the expectations through third-party logistics partners and run trials for hyperlocal deliveries,” said Mrigank Gutgutia, director, e-commerce, RedSeer Consulting.
Gutgutia said the share of hyperlocal deliveries might constitute 10% of overall e-commerce shipments, post the festival sale season.
E-commerce marketplaces usually hold up to three festive sale events leading to Diwali, with the first sale event driving 60% of total sales. According to RedSeer estimates, almost 50 million shoppers are expected to opt for online purchases during the first festive sale, which includes Flipkart’s Big Billion Days event and Amazon India’s Great Indian Festival sales.
