Tuesday, October 16, 2012

So How Many Extra Staff Will You Be Taking on This Chistmas?



How many companies can you identify that will be taking on 60,000 temporary seasonal staff this year?

We have already written about the 10,000 additional staff Amazon intend to take on in the UK and now it has announced they will be joined by some 50,000 additional staff in the US! In effect Amazon will be doubling their workforce over the holiday season and that indicates the significant sales uplift that they expect that they will have to cope with. This is in addition to all the sales they make commission on through their marketplace which are shipped by their partners. It also excludes all the devices sales done by resellers.

If Amazon is confident of this level of turnover who are going to be the causalities? Which retailers are going to have a bleaker Christmas than they expected?

Amazon does not just ship books, CDs, Videos, games, but the emporium sells nearly everything and the kitchen sink. However, we must note their claims that their digital business is now more in some sectors than its physical counterparts. Digital sales need no extra staff and in fact need fewer staff so it begs the question how much physical business they expect to mop up this year. 60,000 temporary staff would indicate a lot!

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