Flipkart, the country’s largest e-commerce marketplace, announced on Wednesday that it will create over two million jobs through its marketplace and ancillary services this year.
The rapid development of the e-commerce ecosystem in India will contribute towards the generation of employment across sectors. Last year, over half a million jobs were created in the e-commerce space alone, a statement from Flipkart said.
Generating both direct and indirect employment, the marketplace model has opened up opportunities in metros and non-metro cities. This year, nearly 50-60 per cent of employment will be created in tier-II & III cities. For instance, cities such as Jaipur and Baroda have already become the ancillary industry hubs (cataloguing and packaging) and they will continue to generate more opportunities in the future.
Sellers will also play a vital role in creation of jobs across the country — sellers of home products, apparels, mobile accessories and small appliances will generate the maximum employment. In fact, the growth and expansion of their businesses will generate a minimum of 20-25 jobs per seller this year.
E-commerce empowers every artisan/entrepreneur to explore this platform to grow their business. As the business of local artisans increase, the demand for manpower will increase too.
With the rise of SMEs adopting the online marketplace model, the ancillary and support services industry will see a 30– 40 per cent growth while 60 per cent of the employment will be generated in logistics and warehousing alone, the statement pointed out.
“In the recent times, e-commerce has emerged as one of the key drivers of Indian economy. This industry has contributed a lot towards generation of employment opportunities along with enabling SMEs and local artisans. Sellers on our marketplace have been directly responsible for driving employment within their own communities. In fact, e-commerce support facilities like merchandising, buying, packaging and cataloguing have generated more than 75,000 jobs in the last one year,” Ankit Nagori, SVP – Marketplace, Flipkart said.