Amazon India has offered more than 1.6 lakh seasonal work opportunities across the country ahead of the upcoming festive season. The extra workforce will be helpful to its operations network to cope with the expected increase in customer orders during the busy shopping period, the company said.
The job opportunities are in direct and indirect positions in 400 cities in India, covering a wide range of major metropolitan areas and Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Amazon said the workforce will support its e-commerce as well as quick-commerce operations.
The company has already recruited most of the seasonal people and started to train them.
Seasonal workers to support order fulfillment
The new associates will join Amazon's existing operations network and help with several stages of the order process.
They will be responsible for picking, packing, shipping, and delivering customer orders. The addition of such a workforce will help Amazon cope with higher order volumes as festive shopping ramps up.
The hiring covers cities across the country. Amazon specifically mentioned Varanasi, Kochi, Jalandhar, Ghaziabad, Ranchi, Salem and Gorakhpur, among others, and big metropolitan areas.
And as part of its expanded festive workforce, thousands of women and associates with disabilities have also been included.
Amazon employs in 400 cities.
Festive shopping usually leads to an increase in online orders, particularly in electronics, fashion, beauty, groceries, home products and gifting.
Catering to rising demand, e-commerce companies need bigger teams in warehouses, fulfilment centres, transportation and delivery networks. Amazon's latest seasonal hiring is aimed at strengthening these operations before the peak shopping period starts.
Abhinav Singh, Vice President of Operations at Amazon India, said the company has created more than 1.6 lakh seasonal work opportunities to meet the anticipated increase in customer demand.
He said the increased workforce would strengthen Amazon's fulfilment and logistics capabilities and help the company manage the festive season.
Seasonal Associates to receive welfare benefits
Amazon said seasonal workers will have access to several safety and welfare programmes available to other associates.
Workplace safety measures and financial and social security benefits are among them, the company said. It is also supporting associates through its Samridhi programme, which helps workers sign up to the e-Shram portal and receive government welfare and social security schemes.
Amazon has already onboarded most of its seasonal workforce. Training has also begun so that the new associates are prepared for their duties before the festive demand reaches its peak.
The company said many seasonal associates continue working with Amazon even after the festive period, while some return to work with the company during subsequent festive seasons.
Amazon's Growing Operations Network
The seasonal workforce will be added to Amazon’s broader fulfilment and delivery network in India.
Amazon says its nationwide network now includes more than 1.7 million sellers. It also has fulfilment centres in 15 states and has 43 million cubic feet of storage space for seller inventory.
Amazon also has sortation centres in 19 states and a network of nearly 2,000 Amazon-operated and partner delivery stations.
This network is expected to help with the surge in orders during the festive season.
The company is also expanding its quick-commerce operations, and tens of thousands of the newly created work opportunities support the growing Amazon Now network, according to Amazon.
Seasonal Hiring Drives.
Amazon’s development comes as e-commerce companies throughout India start preparing for the increased consumer spending during the festive season.
In the last month, Meesho said it expected to have more than 10 lakh seasonal job opportunities across the seller and logistics ecosystem. It said around 6.5 lakh jobs would come through its seller network and nearly 3.75 lakh through logistics operations.
Seasonal hiring is growing in importance in India’s online retailing industry as festive shopping becomes more prevalent. And as there are more orders to be delivered, e-commerce companies need to grow and scale their own workforce and logistics network in order to keep up.
Amazon India's preparation comes through the creation of more than 1.6 lakh seasonal opportunities. Most of the workers are already onboarded and trained, and the company is taking action to better prepare for the expected festive shopping rush.
