Home-grown e-commerce platform Flipkart expects to generate over 1 lakh new job opportunities across its supply chain, including fulfilment centres, sortation centres and delivery hubs ahead of the festive season, news agency Reuters said on Monday. The seasonal jobs, both direct and indirect, will include those for local kirana delivery partners and women. Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) will also be employed to create a diverse supply chain talent, the company said in a statement.
Hemant Badri, senior vice-president and head of supply chain, customer experience and recommerce, Flipkart group, said, "The Big Billion Days (TBBD) is about scale, innovating for India, and impacting the ecosystem. It allows millions of new customers to experience the goodness of e-commerce, many of them for the first time." TBBD is the Flipkart sale time during which it offers discounts on products of top brands. "The complexity and scale during TBBD require us to scale up for capacity, storage, placement, sorting, packaging, human resources, training, delivery, and the entire supply chain, and this scale is always unprecedented," Badri said.
According to him, this year, the company plans to deliver more than 40 per cent of shipments through its kirana delivery programme. Flipkart this year has added more than 19 lakh sq ft of space in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Telangana, the company added.
Meanwhile, US retail giant Walmart has increased its stake in Flipkart as it paid $3.5 billion (around Rs 28,953 crore) to acquire shares from its non-controlling interest holders in six months to July 31, 2023. Additionally, during the six months ended July 31, 2023, the company received $700 million related to new rounds of equity funding for the company's majority-owned PhonePe subsidiary, said the Bentonville-based retailer in a US Securities & Exchange Commission (US SEC) filing.
"During the six months ended July 31, 2023, the company paid $3.5 billion to acquire shares from certain Flipkart non-controlling interest holders and settle the liability to former non-controlling interest holders of PhonePe," said Walmart filing.
After this, Walmart's total holding in Flipkart would increase to 80.5 per cent, some reports said. The US e-tailer has bought a stake from hedge fund Tiger Global and Accel Partners. Besides, the US retail major also acquired the residual stake of Binny Bansal, Flipkart cofounder.