Quick commerce delivers quick jobs

Companies such as Zomato, BigBasket, Ecom Express, Shadowfax and Swiggy are ramping up their delivery manpower, led by a growing demand for online delivery and quick-commerce services.

More than 400,000 jobs will be up for grab for last-mile delivery and supply-chain personnel in the next 90 days, almost 50% up from a year ago, according to various estimates. Manpower needs will be spread across grocery and food deliveries, medicines, apparel and fashion and will be a mix of regular and gig workers.

The surge in manpower demand is to cater to normal organic growth due to increase in online shopping. A big impetus is also coming from the quick-commerce initiatives by many of the leading online platforms that are setting up dark stores, creating hyperlocal distribution networks and engaging more partners to ensure instant delivery.

Shadowfax Technologies, which works with online marketplaces such as Flipkart Quick, Zepto, BigBasket and Swiggy Instamart, plans to increase its hiring of delivery agents by three times in 2022 compared with last year.

“Online and on-demand tech-backed gig marketplace for instant deliveries will drive more demand considering the shift in purchasing behaviours,” said Abhishek Bansal, cofounder, Shadowfax Technologies. “The sector is constantly evolving, and delivery agents are a crucial part of it. With this, we are expecting more demand in the near future,” he added.

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Food delivery platform Zomato, which recently announced its 10-minute delivery offering, Zomato Instant, is ramping up efforts to engage more delivery partners, including more women and transgender participants, said a company spokesperson.

“We are expecting a rise in demand for delivery partners due to the organic growth in our core delivery business as well as growth fuelled by additional use cases (including Zomato Instant),” the person added.

“Anyone who enters the quick-commerce space will have to hire more people in the near future,” said TN Hari, head HR at online grocer BigBasket.

India’s quick-commerce market is set to reach a size of close to $5.5 billion by 2025, growing 15 times its current size and leading other markets including China in terms of customer adoption, according to a recent report by management consulting firm RedSeer.

That apart, even as physical stores open, the benefits of placing an order online and fast delivery at the doorstep will continue to gravitate customers to online purchase.

“Quick commerce will see the next big wave of investment and will open up a plethora of opportunities for online players. Last-mile delivery network is extremely manpower-heavy and hence the need to serve customers instantly will create a lot of employment opportunities,” said Angshuman Bhattacharya, national leader – consumer and retail at EY.

Staffing solutions companies such as ManpowerGroup India are seeing a surge in demand. “We are witnessing increased demand by 25-30% compared to the last quarter,” said Alok Kumar, senior director for sales, account management and global accounts.

Ecom Express is doubling its intake of delivery associates to 30,000 this year from 17,000 last year as it sees a massive uptake in delivery from across India, especially from tier III/IV cities and remote parts of the country.

“Our Express and Fulfilment Centre including dark store categories involving bikers continue to scale up. This number will be more aggressive next year,” said Saurabh Deep Singla, chief people officer, Ecom Express.

Swiggy is hiring thousands of delivery agents to meet the demands of the ongoing cricketing season.

“Swiggy continues to register an upward trend in orders and this is likely to remain so as offices begin to open up. The year’s most awaited cricketing extravaganza has begun. We are continuing to on-board thousands of delivery partners across markets,” said a company spokesperson.