E-com majors ramp up hiring for fest season

BENGALURU: E-commerce majors Amazon India and Flipkart are expanding their workforce by about 1.5 lakh temporary staff each to handle the surge in orders expected during the upcoming festive season, people aware of the matter said.

Amazon on Monday announced that it has created more than 1.5 lakh seasonal job opportunities across its fulfilment centres, sortation hubs and last-mile delivery network. The company said the hires include thousands of women and more than 2,000 persons with disabilities, and that most of them have already joined operations. The additional staff will support its 16 lakh sellers during the peak shopping period.

A source familiar with Flipkart’s plans told TOI that its seasonal workforce is expected to touch about 1.5 lakh, taking the company’s overall supply chain strength to around 3 lakh during the festival period. “This time, given the GST reforms, expectations point to a bumper festival… In many ways it makes sense to hire for festive expectations. Having these is a competitive advantage in many ways,” the person said. Flipkart did not respond to TOI’s queries at the time of publication.

During 2024's festival sales, the two e-commerce majors had hired 1-1.5 lakh temporary staffers. Both firms compete for a larger share of consumer spending in what is expected to be a bumper season, helped by an anticipated uptick in discretionary purchases.