Quick commerce to scale up hiring in 2025

The demand for temporary or contractual workers is only rising as quick commerce flourishes, and experts see a record in such recruitment this year. Rapid tier II-III expansion, a plethora of product and category launches, as well as relatively new entrants such as Flipkart Minutes upping the tempo are reasons for temp hirings, they said.

A TeamLease Services analysis shared with ET estimates the existing 260,000 fast-delivery workforce will grow by at least 150,000 in 2025 itself. “Considering the surge in demand, we have more stores coming up and expansion continuing this year,” Tanuja Tewari, CHRO at BigBasket, told ET.

The Tata company will focus on hiring for technology, merchandising and last-mile logistics at its quick commerce venture BBNow, she said. There has also been a surge in the number of dark stores.

Swiggy Instamart added 96 new mini-warehouses in the December quarter, it said in a regulatory filing on February 5, taking overall dark stores to 705 at end of 2024. Flipkart Minutes aims to have 300 by March, as reported by ET on February 7. Zepto has over 900 and Blinkit more than 1,000 dark stores. “Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart have sounded out temp hiring services firms to add to the workforce. Hiring of delivery fleets could either be permanent or short- to mid-term,” said an executive at one of the platforms, requesting not to be named.

Eye on expenditure
Another reason for temp hiring, instead of getting delivery fleet on employee rolls, is to keep costs under control. A January report by HSBC Global Research said, “Quick commerce companies are projected to conclude FY26 with 5,000-5,500 dark stores. We believe leading companies like Zepto are likely to expand to 1,000 stores, and then look to optimise this capacity and improve profitability.”

According to Balasubramanian A, senior vice-president and business head at TeamLease Services, quick commerce currently employs 200,000 delivery personnel and 60,000 dark store workers. Quick delivery personnel earn INR 18,000-23,000 per month in metropolitan areas and INR 15,000-20,000 in non-metros. For dark store workers, monthly earnings typically fall within INR 12,000-18,000, plus incentives, said experts.