Global online retailer Amazon is expanding its Cape Town customer service and development team, with the aim of more than doubling the number of staff by the end of the year.
Amazon fielded its first call at its Cape Town call centre last October, announcing at the time that it aimed to eventually create 1 000 jobs.
The company, which currently has 250 staff members, wants to hit 600 fulltime employees by year-end, and create another 400 holiday jobs for peak periods.
Bulelwa Koyana, CEO of umbrella industry body Business Process Enabling SA, previously said the sector hopes to create at least 30 000 new jobs in the next five years. At the moment, SA's business process outsourcing sector employs around 10 000 people.
The retailer's five-year, R250 million investment is supported by the Department of Trade and Industry's grant programme, and is part of its strategy to offer around-the-clock customer service.
“We're delighted to be hiring hundreds of new employees in SA to help us serve customers around the world,” says Scott Sommers, senior site leader for the Cape Town centre. The new facility serves both the US and German markets.
Sommers adds: “Cape Town is ideally positioned to cater for the US morning market; it is also able to service one of our key European markets due to a strong pool of affluent German speakers living in the city.”
Amazon has eight dedicated global service centres outside of America.
Share