Flipkart to hire 20-30% people in 2017

E-commerce major Flipkart is looking to hire 20-30% more people in 2017 compared to last year even as rival Snapdeal hands out pink slips to its employees. The Bengaluru-based firm, which is locked in an intense battle with the US-based Amazon for leadership in the Indian market, will hire mostly laterals this year.

“Our 2017 hiring plans are calibrated to the growth momentum we are seeing and we expect it to be somewhere around 20% to 30% higher than last year, spread out as per requirements across verticals,” Flipkart COO Nitin Seth told PTI. He added that a majority of this will likely come in through the lateral route. “We believe this offers us the right mix of talent needed to power the next phase of growth at Flipkart,” he said. Seth, however, declined to comment on the hiring number this year or in the previous year.

According to people aware of the information, Flipkart hired about 1,500 people last year. Besides, it hired about 10,000 temporary staffers, mostly in logistics, ahead of festive sales to ensure it can meet the huge jump in demand. According to research firm RedSeer, the Indian e-tailing industry expanded by a merely 12% in 2016 to clock revenues of $14.5 billion compared to a whopping 180% growth in 2015.

With raising of fresh funds becoming difficult and markdown in valuations, many of these technology-led businesses are being forced to pare down workforce or shut businesses. Flipkart itself has seen a mutual fund managed by Morgan Stanley marking down its value for the fifth straight quarter. It now values the e-commerce major at $5.37 billion.

Last month, SoftBank-backed Snapdeal laid off some 600 people, with founders forgoing their salaries as part of the company’s efforts to become profitable in two years. Similarly, the Chennai-based online hotel room aggregator Stayzilla decided to wrap up operations because of intense competition in the market.