NEW DELHI: Gearing up for the upcoming festive season, India’s two largest e-commerce players, Amazon and Flipkart, have hired over 1.4 lakh temporary workers across the supply chain to stay ahead of the race.
While the US-based Amazon said it has created more than 90,000 seasonal employment opportunities across different verticals, Walmart-owned Flipkart said it has added over 50,000 direct jobs across its supply chain, logistics arm and customer support.
E-commerce companies see a major jump in sales during the festival season. The two companies also hold their annual sales programmes, where deep discounts on listed products are offered to maximise sales. Flipkart will begin its ‘Big Billion Days’ sale on September 29 that will go on till October 4. Amazon will also have its ‘Great Indian Festival’ sale during the same period.
Flipkart said it has trained the recruits in various aspects like handling hand-held devices, point of sale machines, scanners, various mobile applications and ERPs (enterprise resource planning) as well as finer aspects of customer service, delivery and installation.
“With new employment opportunities across geographies and the prospect of scaling the sellers’ businesses, we aim to stimulate local industries and foster the creation of a robust economy,” Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.
Amazon said it has created seasonal positions in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Pune, along with indirect opportunities through its fulfilment partner networks such as its trucking partners and packaging vendors.
It has also ramped up the capacity of its fulfilment centres (warehouses) to more than 26 million cubic feet of storage space for sellers’ inventory this year. It has doubled the presence of its delivery service partner network with more than 1,400 delivery stations present across 750 cities.
“This year, we have created opportunities for close to double the number of seasonal associates compared to the last festive season. These seasonal associates will augment our capabilities to serve our customers better and ensure faster deliveries across the country,” Amazon India vice-president (Customer Fulfilment) Akhil Saxena said.