As India gears up for the two-month festive season starting early September, leading e-commerce and quick commerce platforms are aggressively ramping up recruitment of gig workers across various roles.
Flipkart on Monday announced plans to expand its workforce by over 2.2 lakh people ahead of the festive rush. These hires will be deployed across warehouses, delivery operations, team leadership, and customer experience functions. Of the total, about 10% will be women, along with specially-abled individuals and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Flipkart said it is scaling employment opportunities, infrastructure, and technology deployment across 28 states.
The announcement comes close on the heels of Amazon, which last week said it would create over 1.5 lakh jobs across its operations network. Amazon plans to hire thousands of women and around 2,000 specially-abled people.
The recruitments are aimed at strengthening last-mile connectivity to ensure timely deliveries across the country during the festive season while also bringing a more diverse workforce into the ecosystem.
Both Flipkart and Amazon are focusing heavily on Tier 2 and 3 cities, where they expect strong festive demand. Flipkart is setting up 650 new delivery hubs in locations such as Siliguri, Kundli, and Jakhar. Around 15% of its new hires will be freshers, who will take up roles as pickers, packers, sorters, and delivery executives. Amazon, apart from metros like Mumbai and Delhi, is expanding in cities including Coimbatore, Indore, Raipur, Jalandhar, Ranchi, Anantnag, and Jalgaon.