Flipkart plans to generate two million e-commerce jobs

India’s leading e-retailer Flipkart plans to generate around two million jobs through its marketplace and ancillary services this year.

“Rapid development of e-commerce ecosystem will generate around two million direct and indirect jobs across the country in 2015 as against 500,000 jobs it created in 2014,” the city-based company said in a statement here on Wednesday. As the company’s marketplace model has opened up opportunities in metros and cities, about 60 percent of employment will be in tier-two and tier-three cities. “Cities like Jaipur in Rajasthan and Baroda in Gujarat, which have become ancillary industry hubs for cataloguing and packaging, will generate more job opportunities in the coming years,” Flipkart vice-president Ankit Nagori said on the occasion. Asserting that logistics and warehousing segments in the e-commerce ecosystem would be major employment generators, Nagori said sellers play a vital role in job creation. “Sellers of home products, apparels, mobile accessories and small appliances will generate maximum jobs, as each of them has potential to employ 20-25 people,” Nagori added. E-commerce also empowers artisans and entrepreneurs to explore the e-platform to expand and grow their business. As the business of local artisans increase, demand for manpower will also increase. With small and medium enterprises (SMEs) adopting our online model, ancillary and support services industry will witness a 30-40 percent growth, leading to 60 percent of employment creation in logistics and warehousing," Nagori said. With e-commerce emerging as one of the key drivers of the economy, its support facilities like merchandising, buying, packaging and cataloguing have generated over 75,000 jobs in the last 12 months. “We offer SME training programmes across 20 cities in association with the union ministry of labour to train people for upgrading their skills and chart-out careers in verticals of their choice,” he said. With 30,000 sellers and 30 million registered customers, the eight-year-old start-up e-retailer clocks about 10 million page visits (hits) daily, reaches 1,000 cities and delivers eight million shipments per month, with back-up support through technology and supply chain. IANS