According to the HSBC Global Report, 50 per cent of the expected 24 million jobs, to be created in India in the next decade, may come from the e-commerce sector.
The rapidly expanding and attention grabbing e-commerce sector in India is expected to create a huge chunk of jobs in the coming few years. The HSBC Global Report recently forecasted that half of the 24 million jobs that India is seeking to create in the next ten years could be coming from the e-commerce sector.
The e-commerce space currently employs about one million people in India, but the report states that the number is set to grow by at least 700 per cent by 2020. Seventy per cent of those jobs will be in logistics, warehousing and delivery, 25 per cent in customer care and IT, and five per cent in corporate.
India needs to generate a total of 80 million jobs by 2025, which is double of the figure in the last 10 years. This, however, seems like a far-fetched target taking into account both demand and supply of jobs and the existing labour-intensive sectors, such as agriculture and services that may not be able to meet the entire demand, alone. However, the report states that e-commerce jobs are ‘more productive than the types of jobs India is currently creating’. In addition, the e-commerce sector has the capacity to offer jobs that are well-suited for India’s diverse skill set and entrepreneurial profile.
The ongoing technological advances, adoption of the Internet and smartphones at a rapid pace along with digital reforms in banking are some of the strongest drivers for the increased employment opportunities. The report also stated that as a consequence of the largely unorganised nature of India’s retail sector, online transactions will take off as they offer convenience to a young population more open to embracing new ways of consuming and doing business.
The HSBC report suggests that online businesses will not only create a quarter of the 80 million jobs but also that these jobs will involve highly productive work. Interestingly, the report projected that about five million village merchants could come under the fold of online business.
The entire projection, however, is dependent on the country’s ability to up its domestic manufacturing and supply mechanisms, including infrastructural issues or there can apparently be a state of macro-instability, the report suggests.
E-commerce companies are firms that offer products and services through the Internet and operate under three models currently —business-to-customer (B2C), customer-to-customer (C2C) and business-to-business (B2B). Examples of B2C would be Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Uber; while those of C2C would be Quickr and OLX.com; and B2B entities are portals, such as tolexo.com and amazonbusinesses.com. The HSBC study has focussed on business-to-customer (B2C) model in the e-commerce space, but also includes food delivery services and travel booking sites, such as makemytrip.com.