Quick commerce to hike festive workforce by up to 60%

Quick-commerce platforms are set to bolster their temporary workforces by 40-60% this festive season to cope with a likely surge in demand, according to staffing and recruitment services firms.

Additionally, Redseer estimates that the share of quick commerce deliveries this festive season will be 10% of the total ecommerce market, doubling from last year.

Currently, about a million people are estimated to be deployed in the quick commerce segment.

“Quick commerce GMV (gross merchandise value) is expected to be ₹11,000-12,000 crore in the 30-35 day festive period. This may lead to significant supply chain ramp-ups by quick-commerce platforms, including scaling-up the festive-oriented hiring,” Kushal Bhatnagar, associate partner at Redseer told ET.

Quick-commerce platforms such as Flipkart’s Minutes, Amazon Now, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, and BigBasket’s BB Now, among others are preparing for the key Diwali season with the aim to further grow their presence in this intensely-competitive market.

Around 80,000 to 100,000 workers are expected to be hired for quick-commerce business alone this festive season, said Aditya Mishra, chief executive officer at CIEL HR.Fresh hires will be deployed in roles across dark stores including pickers, packers, loaders, and store managers besides delivery partners, back-end staff in software development, business analysis, data analytics, customer service, procurement, compliance, etc.The festive period, which started with Onam and Ganesh Chaturthi in August, will conclude with Diwali in October. This will be followed by the wedding season.

Amazon India is currently running a 10-minute delivery service, ‘Amazon Now’, in select pin codes in Bengaluru and Delhi. “We are excited with the initial customer response and positive feedback, especially from Prime members,” said an Amazon spokesperson. “Based on this, we’re now expanding the service over the next few months.”

“This year’s festive, Flipkart’s workforce expansion has been fuelled by the rapid growth of Flipkart Minutes, along with the scale-up of last-mile operations to meet festive demand,” said Aakriti Chandra, vice president – Ekart, Minutes, CX, Recommerce, HR at Flipkart.

According to experts, Tier 1 cities are currently the volume drivers though Tier 2 cities are also ramping up fast, leading quick commerce firms to grow their workforces pre-emptively to avoid outages.