Amazon ran a cricket-style league to retain India gig riders during peak season

For India's e-commerce giants, the October-November festive season accounts for over 40 percent of annual sales, but the same window sees gig riders — the people who actually move packages — vanish to competitors. Amazon's Flex program, which capped shifts at two-hour blocks and paid a flat 125 rupees per hour, needed a way to keep riders showing up when it mattered most.

In 2021 Amazon designed Delivery Premier League, a 30-day contest modeled after the Indian Premier League cricket tournament. Every hour spent delivering counted as a 'run'; leaderboards tracked zone-level scores, and double-run Power Overs were triggered during rain or low-coverage periods. Riders who hit 175 runs earned Amazon gift vouchers, while higher tiers offered phones, motorbikes, and televisions — all on top of the hourly wage.

The program targeted part-time hires — students, homemakers, and after-hours workers — who could reserve up to eight hours a day through the Flex app. Amazon refused to share rider counts, but participants said a 15,000-person waitlist had formed to join. One rider, Samuel, said he accepted every rain-period Power Over because the triple bonus doubled his daily earnings and helped pay his mother's medical bills.

Prakash Rochlani, Amazon India's last-mile logistics director, told Rest of World that DPL was 'helping get more traction during this time' and that the company might create culture-specific versions for other markets. The program extended a gamification playbook Amazon had already deployed in US warehouses, where games like MissionRacer were expanded to at least 20 fulfillment centers by early 2021.

DPL drove higher rider retention and engagement during India's busiest 40-percent-of-sales window

Amazon and rival Flipkart compete for the same finite pool of Indian gig riders, and a Rest of World survey found one in seven workers do not expect to stay past a year

Festive-season delivery demand spikes to 40 percent of annual sales, making rider retention during October-November existentially important for platform performance

Flat hourly pay alone could not differentiate Flex from Zomato and Swiggy, where riders reported declining incentives and arbitrary algorithmic changes

Leaderboards and weather-triggered bonuses created competitive urgency without raising base wages, letting Amazon scale engagement at marginal cost

Gamifying routine work with leaderboards and weather bonuses can lock in a seasonal gig workforce that otherwise drifts to rivals

Rochlani indicated Amazon would tailor DPL incentives for different cultures and geographies. The program reinforced Amazon's broader gamification strategy, which by 2021 had expanded warehouse games to at least 20 US fulfillment centers. Gig workers like Samuel said DPL's extra income made Flex far more attractive than rival platforms, with Zomato riders actively seeking to switch.