e-commerce to pick up pace in 2022: TeamLease survey

Hiring across India's e-commerce industry is expected to pick up pace in 2022 as the sector continues to see strong growth momentum due to the shift in customers' shopping behaviour to buying online. A survey by TeamLease Services has found that the industry witnessed a 28 per cent increase in hiring activity in 2021 and is likely to see 32 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in 2022, with demand for various kind of contractual/ flexible workers likely to be the highest.

India's leading e-tailers like Amazon, Flipkart already stepped up hiring in the face of increased demand for online shopping during the pandemic, and announced recruitment of thousands of contractual workers during the three-months long festive season period.

In its report, TeamLease said that the e-commerce sector grew by 8 per cent in 2020 and 30 per cent in 2021. It is now poised to reach $111 billion by 2024 and $200 billion by 2026. E-commerce and the allied sectors are expected to clock $80 billion sales in 2022, while the industry is projected to exceed 300-350 million shoppers by 2026. All of this has provided the much-needed impetus to the economy and created a multitude of employment opportunities, as per the survey.

In terms of employment opportunities, the survey noted that there was a 28 per cent surge in e-commerce and allied industries (e-commerce, social commerce, online grocery/essentials) in 2021. In fact, December quarter witnessed 57 per cent employers in the e-commerce and tech start-up segment keen to hire more.

Over the year, the demand was high for roles like supply chain management, warehouse roles (delivery executives, movers, pickers, packers, loaders etc.), support services and customer service management. Majority of hiring was concentrated in cities like Ahmedabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad. Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Pune, Vizag, Mumbai and Noida, the report stated.