E-commerce marketplace for value-conscious buyers Snapdeal has furloughed around 7 per cent – 50-55 employees – of its 750 full-time workforce for three months even as the company sees recovery in demand for goods during the fourth phase of the Covid-19 lockdown in India. Snapdeal also has around 800 contractual workforce. “Furlough could be extended depending on the situation. The affected employees are across teams including product, technology, sales etc.,” a source aware of the development told Financial Express Online.

“A small number of our team members will be on a three-month furlough as we align talent based on current and medium-term projects. During the furlough period, they will receive their contractual dues and will have continued entitlement to medical insurance for themselves and their families,” a Snapdeal spokesperson told Financial Express Online in a statement confirming the furlough – temporary leave from work.

The last major realignment exercise at Snapdeal, in which employees were impacted, was back in 2017 when the company had reportedly laid off around 600 employees while founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal had foregone their salaries to stay on their path to profitability. Its consolidated revenues grew close to 73 per cent to Rs 925.3 crore in FY19 while losses went down to Rs 186 crore from around Rs 611 crore in FY18.

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Following the Covid pandemic and the government’s guidelines allowing e-commerce marketplaces to resume taking orders in the red zone as well from the last week onwards, Snapdeal had restored its services across India –around 26,000 pin codes. Amazon and Flipkart, on the other hand, had also started taking orders for deliveries in the red zone, except for containment zones, as consumers flocked to online shopping after weeks of lockdown.

Apparel, electronics, household products, beauty, kitchen and home appliances, phone accessories etc. have been the top product categories on Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal etc. receiving orders and product searches. Due to the Covid impact, multiple online ventures have reportedly either laid-off employees or asked for pay cuts such as Ola, Zomato, Swiggy, Uber, WeWork, OYO, ShareChat etc.