Walmart will hire 20000 workers ahead of the holidays - Business Insider

Walmart is set to hire 20,000 seasonal workers to staff ecommerce fulfillment centers.
This move could help it maintain its fulfillment edge on Amazon and meet surging demand this fall and winter.
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The major US retailer is set to hire 20,000 seasonal workers to staff its ecommerce fulfillment centers nationwide through the upcoming holiday season, per Marketwatch.

walmart us ecommerce annual sales growth — Walmart will hire 20,000 workers ahead of the holidays.

The new staffers, who can begin working as soon as 48 hours after applying, will stay on through January 1, 2021, with many jobs becoming permanent. The hiring initiative complements Walmart's push to stock up on high demand items, including exercise and athleisure equipment, electronics, and pet products.

Preparing well ahead of time for the holiday season could help Walmart maintain its strong growth and robust positioning. Walmart's ecommerce sales more than doubled to 97% annually in Q2 2020 as the pandemic skyrocketed etail nationwide. The brand's robust fulfillment network (which includes both stores and dedicated ecommerce centers) aided that growth by allowing orders to reach customers quickly—a point of differentiation from Amazon, which struggled with fulfillment in the spring and lost market share as a result.

But as Amazon ramps up hiring and fulfillment as well ahead of the holiday season, which is set to start earlier than ever—Prime Day is slated for October 13–14—Walmart's push can ensure that it'll stay competitive and handle the volume the season is expected to bring in. That, in turn, could help Walmart maintain or improve upon its performance, especially as it tries to grow Walmart+, which centers same-day delivery as a core value proposition.

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