Indian E-Commerce Firms Ramp Up Hiring Of Delivery Partners For Upcoming Shopping Season

According to a report by NITI Aayog in June, employment for gig work, of which delivery workers and salespersons form a large chunk, likely to reach 99 lakhs in 2022-23, up 45 per cent from 2019-20

Indian e-commerce firms start hiring delivery personnel at a swift pace as the biggest annual shopping season is approaching, the Reuters said.

According to the report, the e-tailers are fearing a labour shortage that might cause them to lose out in one of the biggest annual shopping seasons that begins next month.

The moves come amid a tightening job market – India’s unemployment rate fell below 7 per cent in July for the first time since January – and persistently high inflation, complicating the outlook for the industry that has long battled chronically high employee turnover.

“Overall demand for the gig workforce has seen a sharp increase and that is not completely supported by the increase in pool size of delivery people… It is not a free flowing pool,” T K Balakumar, chief operating officer at online grocery seller BigBasket, said.

Backed by the Tata group, BigBasket has ramped up the number of delivery partners in its instant delivery segment BB Now to 2,200 in the quarter ended June, from just 500 in the March quarter as it aims to further raise the number to about 6,000 by March 2023.

BigBasket and other e-commerce firms such as Dunzo have their own personnel for delivery, while others such as cosmetics-to-fashion retailer Nykaa rely on third parties for providing the service.

According to a report by NITI Aayog in June, employment for gig work, of which delivery workers and salespersons form a large chunk, is expected to reach 99 lakhs in India in 2022-23, up about 45 per cent from 2019-20.

“People… look at a delivery job as a job in transit, they move off to something else, you’ll always have shortages and then in cases where there is a specific event or festival, there’s definitely a challenge that the delivery requirement goes up,” said Sekhar Garisa, strategy chief at business services provider Quess Corp.

Companies such as Quess and TeamLease act as middlemen between e-commerce firms and job seekers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Some companies were optimistic the labour crisis situation will get better.

“There’s a constant churn and movement that has existed for 4-5 years. It can cause a temporary crunch but we don’t think it is a long term thing because supply and demand will match,” Kabeer Biswas, chief executive officer at Dunzo, said.

Dunzo, which is backed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, currently has 75,000 delivery partners.