Festive feast: E-com, logistics players load up carts for peak demand

Ahead of the festival season, e-commerce firms are ramping up hiring for gig roles, third-party logistics (3PL) players are enhancing their infrastructure for faster deliveries, and quick commerce companies are expanding their dark store networks to meet the anticipated demand.

Seasonal jobs are expected to increase by as much as 20 per cent this festival season compared to last year, according to data from the hiring portal Indeed.

E-commerce hiring push

E-commerce marketplace Meesho has created roughly 850,000 seasonal job opportunities within its seller and logistics network, a 70 per cent increase from last year, said Sourabh Pandey, chief experience officer of fulfilment and experience at the firm.

Of this, Meesho’s sellers have hired 500,000 seasonal workers, while its 3PL partners have generated around 350,000 seasonal jobs. The roles include first-mile, middle-mile, and delivery associates responsible for duties such as picking, sorting, loading, unloading, and handling returns.

Earlier this year, Meesho launched its own logistics service, Valmo, but it also relies on 3PL providers such as Delhivery, Ecom Express, Shadowfax, and XpressBees to fulfil deliveries.

Similarly, Walmart-owned e-commerce giant Flipkart announced the launch of 11 new fulfilment centres across nine cities on Wednesday, ahead of its flagship The Big Billion Days event. With this addition, the company now operates 83 such centres across the country.

Flipkart’s supply chain expansion will create over 100,000 job opportunities across India, with roles spanning various supply chain verticals, including inventory managers, warehouse associates, logistics coordinators, kirana partners, and delivery drivers, the company said.

E-commerce firms are enhancing their shipment delivery capacities to facilitate quicker deliveries. Both Flipkart and Meesho are providing skilling and training programmes for their new workers to ensure reliable delivery services.

Their sellers are undertaking preparations such as introducing new products, exploring new categories, curating festival collections, and conducting inventory checks to meet increased customer demands.

According to human resource platform TeamLease, the e-commerce industry is expected to see a 35 per cent surge in sales during this year’s festival season, with the sector employing up to 1 million gig workers and 250,000 contractual staff.

Bolstering the last mile

Prominent 3PL players are strengthening their infrastructure and warehousing capabilities to ensure faster and more efficient deliveries.

According to Abhishek Bansal, chief executive officer and co-founder of logistics provider Shadowfax, the company is scaling its logistics capacity “like never before” to meet festival season demand.

“We are particularly excited to nearly double our capacity across several value-added services, such as reverse quality check-based pickups, hand-to-hand doorstep exchanges, and open box deliveries — many of which we’ve developed in partnership with Meesho over the past year,” he said.

Delivery partners and logistics unicorns like Shiprocket, Ecom Express, and XpressBees are also enhancing their infrastructure to cater to the demand for fast deliveries.

Shiprocket has launched Shiprocket Quick in the Delhi-National Capital Region, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kerala, Hyderabad, and Pune to ensure faster deliveries.

Logistics unicorn Ecom Express introduced same-day and next-day delivery services in 10 Indian metros in February this year. Listed 3PL major Delhivery announced a new service providing a network of shared dark stores for rapid same-day deliveries.

Quick commerce players like Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, and Flipkart are also rapidly expanding their dark store networks as competition intensifies.

Non-metro growth

The festival season demand is no longer confined to metropolitan areas. Tier-II and Tier-III cities are emerging as engines of growth, say industry observers.

In Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, and Kolkata, hiring has increased by 18-20 per cent compared to the previous year. In contrast, Tier-II and Tier-III cities such as Nagpur, Jaipur, Vadodara, Kochi, and Vizag have seen a 22-25 per cent increase in demand from last year, according to Indeed.

This trend is reflected in Meesho’s new hires, with over 60 per cent coming from Tier-III and Tier-IV regions.

“Projections indicate that by 2026, the sector’s inclusive nature will become evident, with Tier-II, -III, and -IV cities and rural India driving more than 60 per cent of e-commerce demand,” said Balasubramanian A, senior vice-president and business head at TeamLease Services.

Festive feast

E-com job creation: Festival season is expected to create 1 million gig jobs and 250,000 contractual jobs this year, according to TeamLease

Meesho: Enabled 850,000 lakh seasonal jobs

 

Flipkart:  Launched 11 new fulfilment centres; will create 100,000 jobs

 

Q-com firms expand dark stores:

 

Flipkart Minutes: To open nearly 100 dark stores across ­top cities

 

Blinkit: Plans to reach the 2,000 dark store count by the end of 2026

 

Zepto: Plans to reach 700 dark stores by March 2025