E-commerce, one of the most hot and happening sectors in India, is on a hiring spree with both domestic and global firms stepping up their recruitment efforts. While Amazon, Flipkart and several others are already bullish on increasing their headcount, the entry of newer foreign entities such as Alibaba, Rakuten and Walmart that are seriously eyeing the Indian market, are further expected to result in a hiring boom in the country.
A report published by HR consultancy Randstad India last
month noted that hiring activities in e-commerce are expected to grow by over
30% which may help create up to 50,000 jobs in the next one year. Some other
analysts anticipate that the number may go up to 80,000-100,000 jobs this year
alone with the rate at which the sector is growing in recent months.
The foreign invasion
China’s largest e-commerce company, Alibaba.com, and Japan’s
online market place Rakuten are likely to enter the $12-billion (including
online travel portals) e-commerce space in the next 6-8 months, reports
Business Line. Rakuten, which also runs a travel portal along with its other
e-tailing services, has reportedly leased out an office space in Bangalore that
is also home to large players such as Flipkart, Myntra and Amazon, among
others. This implies that it will ramp up its hiring efforts soon.
While the Tokyo-based company will be entering India for the
first time, Jack Ma’s Alibaba is making a re-entry with a different strategy
altogether, according to sources. Alibaba, which had successfully expelled
global giant Amazon from China, is soon planning the launch of a
business-to-consumer platform soon.
Meanwhile, Walmart, announced plans to open
50 more wholesale outlets in India and start online operations for small
businesses and may look at launching a B2C service, if FDI is permitted in the
sector.
Global etailers, Amazon has plans to hire almost 10,000 employees
to expand their business in the country. Speeding up campus recruitments is
also a part of the game plan, according to recent reports.
The domestic warriors
Domestic firms like Flipkart, Jabong, Snapdeal, Myntra etc.
too are not far behind. They are planning to expand the employee base by about
60,000 personnel in the next one year, according to eTailingindia is a research
firm that tracks the e-commerce industry. Ashish Jhalani, founder of
eTailingindia commented that the hiring may touch 1 lakh overall, but 60,000 is
a safe bet.
Flipkart is reportedly hire 12,000 people by the end of 2014
to strengthen its support and technology operations. Mekin Maheshwari, Chief
People Officer of the company said that the firm will prioritize hiring in the
areas of IT and senior leadership and also hire across levels and functions.
Other companies too are ready to hire strong engineering
teams, customer agents and logistic support to meet the rising demand in this
sector. For example, Snapdeal.com will double headcount to 2,600 from 1,300
currently, and raise the number of engineers from 250 to 500. Similarly, Jabong
would hire 750 employees in the next one year and Praveen Sinha, founder and
MD, Jabong.com said in a statement.
Smaller players have also joined the hiring bandwagon.
Online restaurant guide Zomato will double its numbers from 650 in core
functions such as IT, sales and operations as it expands in countries across
the Americas, Middle East, Europe, Southeast Asia and Australia and online
ticket booking portal Yatra.com will add 200 to its employee strength of 1,000,
compared with 150 last year, according to the eTailingindia.
“As more people are logging on to ecommerce portals,
companies are hiring aggressively and are also offering lucrative salaries to
attract the right technology talents, in the areas of cloud, analytics and data
mining,” Jigsaw Academy CEO Gaurav Vohra says.
“There is a positive hiring outlook in this space
particularly for tier 1 B-Schools and Engineering colleges since recruiters are
looking for top notch talent and are looking most for campus recruitment,” says
Randstad India CEO Moorthy K Uppaluri told PTI, which suggests that the
significant part of the hiring in e-commerce is at entry or junior levels which
accounts for a relatively younger profile of workforce.
By Sohini Bagchi
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