E-tailers gear up with 20,000 temp staff

NEW DELHI: E-commerce giants will hire over 20,000 temporary workers this festival season in anticipation of a three-fold rise in orders. The market size of e-retail is estimated at $7 billion in India, as per KPMG data.

The number of jobs on offer in Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal are much higher this year. Most openings are in logistics, fulfilment centres, delivery stations and seller support teams.

Both Snapdeal and Flipkart plan to hire 10,000 temporary workers each. Snapdeal also plans to hire interns who will work with corporate teams.

Amazon, however, did not disclose the exact number of temporary employees it needed. They said they had partnered with multiple staffing agencies.

But it is clear that Amazon will hire more temporary staff this year in view of its ambitious expansion to meet festive rush.

Amazon has added six new fulfilment centres and their service partner network now covers close to 250 stations, at least 1.5 times more than last year. They have partnered with more than 12,500 stores, five times more than last year.

Without bleeding too much, every e-commerce player may try to grab market share through better fulfilment and consistent customer experience.

“Customers may get cashbacks through credit and debit cards. As opposed to last season, expect more discounts on lesser popular brands, especially in the electronics segment,” said Sreedhar Prasad, partner, internet commerce, KPMG in India.

“Our sellers will offer a range of attractive discounts, ranging up to 70%,” said Saurabh Bansal, vice-president of category management at Snapdeal.

Snapdeal plans to announce exchange schemes, credit card offers and financing options in select categories.

A Flipkart spokesperson said customers with their no-cost EMI, product exchange and basket discounts could buy more within a small budget.

The company on Wednesday said it has crossed 100 million registered users.