E-commerce giant Flipkart on Tuesday said it will help generate over 70,000 direct and lakhs of indirect seasonal jobs in the country ahead of the Big Billion Days (BBD) sale and festive season.

The Walmart-backed etailer said these job opportunities will be created across all its supply chain, including roles like delivery executives, pickers, packers and sorters.

In addition to this, there will also be additional indirect jobs created at Flipkart’s seller partner locations and kiranas. “This will be further supplemented by job creation in ancillary industries including vendor locations, and freight partners, as the entire ecosystem scales up for the festive season. The expansion and strengthening of the supply chain will help create a robust system enabling millions of new e-commerce users to shop online seamlessly as lakhs of ecosystem players gear up for the festive season.”

“We are focused on creating impactful partnerships that offer great consumer experience while creating additional opportunities for progress of the entire ecosystem as it scales for the BBD,” Amitesh Jha, Senior Vice-President, Ekart and Marketplace, Flipkart, said.

“As a front runner in e-commerce, our training and investment in the workforce is widely recognised, and contributes to skill development and enhances employability. By generating employment and enabling our sellers to scale their businesses during this time, we’re doing our part to drive growth in the industry and the economy,” he added.

Flipkart is undertaking training programs for its direct hires in various aspects of the supply chain through a mix of classroom and digital training, enhancing their understanding of supply chain management.

These include customer service, delivery, installation and safety and sanitisation measures along with the handling of hand-held devices. The training during this period will help impart future-ready skills for the participating workforce, enabling career progression in the fast-growing e-commerce industry in India, Flipkart said.

For seller partners, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and artisans – who also start preparing for the festive season months in advance – Flipkart provides separate training in the area of warehouse management, packaging and more. The entire process of hiring and upskilling is being done following the government’s National Skill Development Mission.

In a separate statement, Flipkart said it will now enable customers to get their goods and service tax identification number (GSTIN) on their invoices, thereby allowing them to claim input tax credit on their purchases.

“In a first of many initiatives towards enabling online commerce for businesses and enterprises, the capability to allow GSTIN on their invoices will help millions of business entities – to claim input tax credit on their business related purchases, saving up to 28 per cent on their purchases,” the statement said.

The platform will serve different types and sizes of organisations across corporates, offices attached to facilities like manufacturing and warehousing, clinics, law firms, consultancies and institutes including service organisations like schools, colleges, hospitals, banks, salons amongst others.

E-commerce 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 to be able to handle the spike in orders.

Last year, Flipkart and its rival Amazon had announced creation of over 1.4 lakh temporary jobs across supply chain, last-mile connectivity and customer support in preparation for their festive sales.