Ahead of festive season, Amazon and Flipkart create over 1.4 lakh temporary jobs

New Delhi: E-commerce giant Amazon and Flipkart have created over 1.4 lakh temporary jobs across supply chain, last-mile connectivity and customer support in preparation for their festive sales that kicks off later this month.

Amazon.in, in a statement on Tuesday, said it has created more than 90,000 seasonal employment opportunities across its fulfilment centres, sortation centres, delivery stations, partner fulfilment network and customer service sites.

Similarly, Walmart-owned Flipkart has added over 50,000 direct jobs across its supply chain, logistics arm and customer support. It expects to have increased the indirect jobs through the seller network by 30 per cent over last year taking it to 6.5 lakh in the run up to its Big Billion Days sale, a Flipkart statement said.

Like in offline retail, e-commerce companies see a significant jump in sales during Dusshera and Diwali. The September-November period typically generates a majority of annual sales of these companies, which prepare months in advance for the sale events.

Amazon said it has created seasonal positions in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Pune, along with indirect opportunities through its fulfilment partner networks such as its trucking partners and packaging vendors.

"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.

The US-based company said it has 15 customer service sites across 11 cities that offer support to the customers with pre-and post-order customer services through e-mail, chat, social media and phone calls in Kannada, English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

Also, it has 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.

Flipkart said it has trained hires in various aspects of the supply chain including handling hand-held devices, PoS (point of sale) machines, scanners, various mobile applications and ERPs (enterprise resource planning) as well as finer aspects of customer service, delivery and installation.

The entire process of hiring and upskilling is being done in accordance with the government's National Skill Development Mission and will significantly spur the local employment and economy, Flipkart said in a statement.

"At Flipkart, however, our aim is to benefit the entire ecosystem with our initiatives and that is exactly what our Big Billion Days aims to do. 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.