Amazon India on Wednesday said it has created more than one lakh seasonal job opportunities ahead of the festive season across its operations network in the country.

E-commerce major like Amazon and Flipkart usually hire thousands of people in temporary delivery and support roles to handle the high volume of orders during the sale period.

The new associates will join Amazon’s existing network of associates and support them to pick, pack, ship and deliver customers’ orders safely and efficiently, the company said in a statement.

“The new seasonal positions will help elevate its delivery experience and boost the company’s fulfilment and delivery capabilities to meet the surge in customer demand this festive season,” it said.

The new seasonal positions will help elevate its delivery experience and boost the company’s fulfilment and delivery capabilities to meet the surge in customer demand this festive season, Amazon India said in a statement.

The company has also generated tens of thousands of indirect opportunities through its partner networks such as its trucking partners, packaging vendors, ‘I Have Space’ delivery partners, Amazon Flex partners and housekeeping agencies among others, it added.

In May this year, Amazon India had created close to 70,000 seasonal opportunities across its operational network and customer service centres.

“This, along with today’s announcement, is another step forward in Amazon India’s commitment to create one million new job opportunities in India by 2025 through continued investments in technology, infrastructure, and its logistics network,” it said.

In 2019, Amazon India and rival Flipkart 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.

A report by RedSeer estimates that about three lakh jobs are expected to be created by various e-commerce and logistics companies during this year’s festive season.

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. Festive season sees players holding multiple sale events, timed around Dussehra and Diwali.

Electronics, fashion and home furnishing are some of the categories that see a huge demand during the festive season.

Another report by RedSeer had said festive sales are expected to almost double this year and touch USD 7 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) as compared to USD 3.8 billion in the same period last year.

“This festive season, we are looking forward to serving customers in every part of the country by providing fast, safe and a more seamless ecommerce experience to them from the safety of their homes. This year, more than 1,00,000 seasonal associates will join us to fulfil customer promises,” Amazon India Vice President – APAC, MENA and LATAM Customer Fulfilment Operations Akhil Saxena said.

Amazon India remains committed to creating job opportunities across the country, specially at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges in earning livelihood for many, he added.

In the last few months, Amazon India has announced plans to launch 10 new warehouses and expand 7 existing centres across the country this year. The company now has more than 32 million cubic feet of storage capacity and supports more than 6.5 lakh sellers across regions.