Quick delivery services driving hiring in e-com

Quick delivery services are driving jobs in the ecommerce space with the last mile delivery hiring growing by around 70 per cent in the December quarter.

"The year seems to be optimistic for last mile delivery services and a healthy kick-start is expected as hiring for the quarter is at 69 per cent, up by 20 per cent from Q3. Hiring for delivery services rose by 28 per cent in 2021 and it intends to surge by further 32 per cent in 2022," said Ajoy Thomas, VP & business head (retail, e-commerce, logistics & transportation), TeamLease Services.

According to him, e-commerce is now about instant services. Customers now want their service providers to be omnipresent and quick across business channels.

Online grocery order lead times are short, so ensuring plenty of staff for order fulfilment is essential. This is because it is difficult to predict customer demand, more so for new operations, said Thomas.

According to RedSeer Consultants, the market penetration of quick commerce was estimated at

$0.3 billion in CY2021 and is expected to grow to $5 billion by 2025.

Around 20 million households are addressable by quick commerce with an estimated addressable market size of

$50 billion, as of 2020. Quick commerce is defined as delivery of consumables within a span of

45 minutes with a nominal delivery charge.

"Quick commerce is emerging as one of the fastest growing e-commerce models serving the need for faster delivery among convenience seeking customers. With high fill-rates and 30-45 minutes delivery service for unplanned orders, mid-to high income households in metros are increasingly replacing traditional kiranas with quick commerce platforms like Swiggy's Instamart and Dunzo," said Mukesh Kumar, engagement manager at RedSeer.

Blinkit, BBNow, and Zepto are a few others active in quick commerce. Swiggy Instamart expects an annualised run rate of $1 billion in in gross mechandise value in the next three quarters.

"The GMV our food delivery business achieved in 40 months, took Instamart just 17 months," said Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy.