BENGALURU: The festive bonus is no longer always one big cheque at the end of a busy month. For workers packing orders, staffing stores or delivering parcels, the extra money can now come through a higher rate on a busy day, an attendance reward after a week, a productivity payout or a bonus for staying through the entire sale season.As ecommerce, retail and logistics companies ramp up for the year’s biggest shopping period, competition for frontline workers is increasingly becoming a retention battle. Companies are putting greater emphasis on incentives tied to attendance, performance and completing the festive season, even as the actual boost to workers’ take-home pay can depend heavily on targets and hours worked.TeamLease Services said spending on festive incentives rose 15-20% in 2025 over 2024 and this year more of the incentive pool this year is being directed towards longer-duration retention payouts for weekly or monthly attendance and end-of-season completion bonuses. “Daily surge pay still exists, but it increasingly sits on top of milestone-based rewards,” said Balasubramanian A, senior vice-president at TeamLease Services.The shift reflects cost of workers leaving midway through peak demand. Festive attrition in high-pressure frontline roles was 35-40% last year, TeamLease said. Last season, monthly earnings across warehouse, fulfilment, picking and packing roles were 12-15% above normal months in metros and 18-22% higher in Tier-II markets, largely due to variable pay.The premium is visible outside warehouses too. Timbuckdo, which connects college students with part-time jobs, said one retailer hiring through its platform can raise pay from around Rs 110 an hour on regular days to about Rs 150 during high-footfall sale periods, taking daily earnings in one example from roughly Rs 600 to Rs 900.Myntra, which is creating over 26,000 seasonal jobs for its Big Fashion Festival, said its reward system continues to include daily spot awards such as electronic gift vouchers or goodies for top-performing fulfilment-centre employees.Flipkart said its delivery workers are being offered joining and retention bonuses as well as referral incentives this festive season, alongside insurance and healthcare benefits.
