Domestic e-commerce majors are likely to hire in fewer numbers from campuses in the placement season this year.
Hiring by Flipkart and Snapdeal is expected to be sharply lower this season compared to a figure of about 400 graduates recruited by them from India's top business schools last year.
B-schools, such as SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, MDI Gurgaon, IIFT and IMI Delhi that have already conducted placements, have witnessed a 40%-75% decline in offers made by the e-commerce firms.
The top three IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata are also headed to see "muted hiring" from e-commerce majors in the country, a placement source at one of these institutes told The Economic Times.
Although the institutes are yet to conduct final placement, there are signs that hiring by these firms may fall. IIM-Kozhikode, which completed placements last weekend, has seen offers from the large e-commerce dipping by approximately 33.3%.
XLRI, where placements will begin in February, expects to see slowdown in hiring by e-commerce companies. SPJIMR has already noticed a sharp fall in offers, with six firms hiring 14 graduates compared to 54 offers made by five firms in 2015.
Similarly, MDI Gurgaon has seen only 19 offers from 13 companies this placement season against 47 offers from six firms last year.
"This (slowdown in campus hiring) can be attributed to recent layoffs and unsuccessful business models of some companies," says Manaswini Acharya, professor of marketing and dean (placements and corporate relations) at IMI Delhi.
At MDI Gurgaon, Flipkart and Snapdeal have given job offers to just two graduates this year. Last year, Flipkart had made 13 offers at the institute, while Snapdeal hired 19 graduates.
"Growth is happening, things are (still) good, but there is a reassessment of how much (cash) burn one should sustain. It is not unnatural for companies to consolidate and cut recruitment," says Sandeep Murthy, partner at venture capital firm, Lightbox Ventures.
