Flipkart launches Flipkart Xtra', aims to create over 4,000 jobs this festive season

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Wednesday said it is introducing a separate marketplace model 'Flipkart Xtra' to offer flexible earning opportunities to individuals, service agencies, and technicians.

Through the 'Flipkart Xtra' app on Google Play Store, Flipkart will provide a simple and seamless onboarding experience to interested individuals.

After background verification, individuals will be able to onboard themselves for various roles, including delivery executives to start with, and service partners or technicians in the coming months, a statement said.

The new platform will help bolster Flipkart's supply chain to ensure seamless and faster delivery of shipments and service to consumers across India while creating part-time opportunities for individuals, it added.

The launch, which comes ahead of the festive season and the company's Big Billion Days, will help thousands of individuals, technicians, and service agencies across the country providing access to opportunities for additional work and earnings as delivery partners, the statement said.

Flipkart aims to onboard 4,000 part-time associates via Flipkart Xtra for the entire festive season leading until December 2021, it added.

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As an organisation committed to creating value for all stakeholders including sellers, artisans, MSMEs, Kiranas, and customers, we are constantly expanding the scope of our partnership to equitably distribute the benefits of ecommerce...we are pleased to launch Flipkart Xtra, our service marketplace, to give flexible earning opportunities to individuals, local stores and even service technicians," Flipkart Senior Vice-President and Head of Supply Chain Hemant Badri said.

This is a new disruption in the gig economy space and will help individuals find an alternate source of income while contributing to the country's economic recovery, he added.

Reports from BCG suggest that the gig economy has the potential to service up to 90 million jobs in India's non-farm economy alone, transact over $250 billion in the volume of work, and contribute an incremental 1.25 percent (approximately) to India's GDP over the long term.

In a separate statement, Flipkart group firm Myntra said it is expanding its 'Kirana network' to 25,000 stores and is hiring 11,000 people for last-mile delivery and customer support ahead of the festive season.

The fashion ecommerce platform said it is gearing up for the upcoming festive period and its 'Big Fashion Festival' by scaling up recruitment of its on-ground staff.

"With its robust supply chain, consisting largely of MENSA (Myntra Extended Network for Service Augmentation) partners, who are typically Kirana store owners in the neighbourhood, and its own Distribution Centers, Myntra is poised to deliver products and joyous experiences to millions of shoppers, while creating seasonal job opportunities, across the country," Myntra said in its statement.

Of the total last-mile recruitments, about 7,500 are for its Kirana network and about 1,000 would be undertaken at Myntra's Delivery Centres (DC), distributed across the country.

The roles that are being closed include the positions of DC assistant, DC support staff, and delivery staff. A majority of the hiring, including for diversity, is being undertaken at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Pune, and Lucknow.

In addition, about 2,700 people are being hired to boost the contact centre capability to manage and help with customer queries during the festive season, the statement said.

"For this festive season, over 70 percent deliveries are expected to be fulfilled by these specially trained Kirana partners. Myntra is set to expand its Kirana store network by about 30 percent from the previous festive edition, taking the total Kirana store count to over 25,000," it said.

Ecommerce companies see a large chunk of their business coming in during the festive sales and they make significant investments ahead of time to ramp up their capacity and add features to be able to handle the spike in orders while ensuring a smooth experience for shoppers and sellers.

"This has been the largest hiring drive ever at Myntra, for on-ground and customer support during any festive season, as we anticipate a strong demand across pin codes, with people eagerly looking forward to shopping on Myntra for their festive needs," Myntra Chief Executive Officer Amar Nagaram said.

The majority of the recruitments are being undertaken to enhance capabilities for last-mile delivery and therefore, Kirana store partners make up for the bulk of hiring, taking the total number of store partners to 25,000 — which is about 30 percent higher than last year — to cater to about 70 percent of the deliveries, he added.

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