HR software for e-commerce and D2C brands
Warehouse shifts, gig and delivery workforce under the Social Security Code, PF and ESI applied, and self-service payslips.
What does HR software for e-commerce and D2C brands do?
It runs attendance, leave and payroll for e-commerce and D2C brands — applying PF, ESI and TDS to every payslip and generating upload-ready return files, while handling what makes this industry different: warehouse shifts and the gig workforce. PeopleDeck prices this per employee, per month.
Warehouse shifts and the gig workforce
E-commerce teams mix salaried HQ staff, warehouse shift workers and gig delivery riders, who now sit inside the Social Security Code framework as its state-by-state rollout continues. Each group needs its own treatment in the same system.
E-commerce payroll runs at three speeds at once. HQ runs monthly salaries with ESOP-adjacent structures and standard statutory lines. The warehouses run shifts that surge — festival-sale months double the floor with fixed-term hires whose contracts end when the surge does. And the delivery layer runs on gig arrangements that Indian law is actively formalising: the Code on Social Security's gig-worker provisions and their state-by-state rollout mean aggregator-model riders accrue defined contributions, and the treatment is still hardening as states notify rules. The operational risk is treating all three populations with one grammar — salarying the gig layer creates false employment; gig-ifying warehouse workers strips them of PF and ESI they are owed. PeopleDeck keeps the three lanes structurally distinct: employees with full statutory treatment, fixed-term surge staff with day-one contributions and automatic settlements, and gig engagements recorded under the evolving Code framework with the contribution hooks the rollout requires.
How PeopleDeck runs it
- ✓ Warehouse shift attendance beside salaried HQ payroll
- ✓ Gig and delivery workforce records aligned to the Social Security Code framework
- ✓ PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS applied to every payslip — upload-ready return files, never filed on your behalf
- ✓ Self-service payslips, Form 16 data and leave balances for every employee
A month in e-commerce payroll
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1
Three populations, three onboardings
HQ hires onboard with structures and declarations; surge hires onboard in batches with end-dated contracts and day-one PF and ESI; gig riders register under engagement terms with the Code-framework records the aggregator provisions expect.
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2
Warehouse shifts close daily
Pick-pack-ship shifts capture on floor devices; overtime beyond shift hours flags per site rules as the surge builds. Attendance closes site by site, and festival-month chaos stays a rostering event rather than a payroll one.
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3
Surge contracts settle themselves
When the sale window closes, end-dated contracts settle automatically (worked days, overtime, leave encashment where due) and the surge demobilises with clean full-and-finals instead of a settlements backlog.
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4
The run pays each lane correctly
Salaries, shift wages and gig payouts compute under their own rules; PF, ESI, PT and TDS apply where each lane's law puts them; payslips and payout statements itemise; and statutory files generate per establishment.
A worked example
Festival month at one fulfilment centre: a permanent picker on ₹16,000 works 26 shifts with 18 overtime hours at 2x — gross ₹18,708, ESI and PF applied. Beside him, 120 fixed-term hires at ₹15,500 with November 30 end dates work the surge; all accrue PF and ESI from day one, and on December 1 the system generates 120 settlements without HR opening a spreadsheet. On the delivery side, a rider's month of per-drop payouts totals ₹21,400 — recorded under his gig engagement with the Code-framework contribution treatment applying per the current state notification, itemised in his payout statement. Three populations, three correct treatments, one month, and when the aggregator-liability question arrives in an audit, the lanes are already separated.
The network economics read from the same run: cost per order's labour component by site, surge premium against sale-season revenue, permanent-versus-fixed-term mix per centre. When next year's festival plan is built, last year's actual surge payroll (headcount, overtime, settlement cost) is a queryable record, and the plan starts from arithmetic instead of last year's war stories.
Figures are illustrative, for mechanism only; your structures and rates will differ.
Key terms in e-commerce payroll
Fixed-term surge employment
Sale-season contracts with end dates: full statutory treatment during tenure, automatic settlement at expiry. The lawful shape of festival scaling, as against the informal alternative that audits find.
Gig-worker Code provisions
The Code on Social Security's framework for gig and platform workers — aggregator contributions and registration, activating state by state. Treatment must track the rollout, not a frozen assumption.
Surge overtime
Peak-season hours beyond shift, computed at premium rates against Factories Act limits. The cost line festival planning most underestimates and payroll most needs to evidence.
Is PeopleDeck the right fit?
Built for you if
- ✓ HQ, warehouse and delivery populations need different treatment
- ✓ Festival surges double your floor with fixed-term hires
- ✓ Gig engagements must track the Code's evolving rollout
- ✓ Multiple fulfilment centres run their own shift patterns
- ✓ Settlement backlogs after surges are a known wound
Not the fit if
- ✕ You want WMS or logistics-orchestration software. This pays the workforce, it doesn't route the orders
- ✕ Your delivery fleet is a third-party logistics provider's; their workforce is their payroll, your contract is procurement
Mechanism deep-dives: the payroll engine · attendance & leave · statutory compliance
Switching without a bad payday
E-commerce companies switch lane by lane: HQ first as a standard migration, then fulfilment centres one at a time with their shift rules encoded and a cycle run in parallel, then the gig layer's records brought under the Code framework. The parallel months surface each lane's characteristic drift — warehouse overtime paid flat instead of premium, surge hires from last season never formally settled, gig arrangements documented nowhere at all.
Each finding matters more now than it used to: the Code's rollout is turning informal delivery arrangements into registrable engagements with contribution duties, and companies that structured their lanes early are the ones for whom each state notification is a configuration change rather than a crisis. Steady state is a network that scales seasonally by template (surge on, surge off) with every population correctly treated and every season leaving a clean record behind it. The discipline to keep: no one works a shift before their record exists; at e-commerce churn rates, retroactive onboarding is where compliance quietly dies.
Not your industry?
Running a school or college? Staff payroll belongs inside your ERP: SchoolDeck staff payroll or CampusAlly payroll.
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Frequently asked questions
What does HR software for e-commerce and D2C brands include?
Attendance and rosters, leave, onboarding to full-and-final, and payroll with PF, ESI and TDS applied to every payslip, plus warehouse shifts and the gig workforce handled natively. Employees get self-service payslips.
How are gig workers handled?
Gig and platform workers are tracked with engagement and payout records aligned to the Social Security Code framework — kept separate from employee PF and ESI, which continue to apply only to employees.
How is PeopleDeck priced?
Per employee per month, in rupees. You pay for the headcount you run, no module bundles, no per-site fees.
Does PeopleDeck file PF and ESI returns?
No; it applies PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS and generates upload-ready ECR and return files. Filing stays with you or your consultant.
How does the system keep up with gig-provision changes by state?
Gig treatment is configuration against the current notifications, effect-dated as states notify, so when a state activates its rules, the change applies from its date without rewriting history.
Can surge hiring import from our recruitment drives in bulk?
Yes — batch imports create end-dated records with validation up front, and self-service collects documents and bank details before the first shift, so a 200-person surge is verification work, not data entry.
What about dark stores and micro-warehouses with five staff?
Small sites run as locations with a device or supervisor-marked attendance, same rules, same run, no per-site overhead that punishes the network for being distributed.
How is ESOP-linked cash handled for HQ staff?
Cash components (buybacks, exercise-linked payouts) process through payroll with correct taxation; grants and vesting stay in your cap-table system. The payslip records what was paid, the equity tool what was promised.
Can it consolidate across group entities — marketplace, logistics arm, private labels?
Yes, each entity runs its own establishment with its own registrations and files, while group management reads consolidated headcount and cost; the boundaries stay clean for transfer pricing and audit alike.
Payroll for e-commerce and D2C brands, without the spreadsheets.
Per employee, per month: attendance to upload-ready returns.
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