Walmart expands drone delivery with Google parent
The drone technology subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet is supporting deliveries via drone at a wider selection of Walmart stores.
Walmart, which initially launched drone-based deliveries from three stores in Northwest Arkansas in late 2021, is expanding a partnership it launched with Wing, an on-demand drone delivery provider powered by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, in August 2023.
Walmart initially offered the Wing drone delivery service from two stores in the Dallas metro area, enabling the retailer to reach 60,000 homes. Utilizing drones that can fly beyond visual line of sight, Walmart says it can provide on-demand delivery for customers living within an approximate six-mile range of the stores that offer the service.
A Walmart Supercenter in Frisco, Texas, was the first to store to launch delivery via Wing drones. As of April 29, 2024, Wing drone delivery is available at the following Walmart locations:
- 9101 N Tarrant Pkwy, North Richland Hills, TX.
- 6401 NE Loop 820, North Richland Hills, TX.
- 8555 Preston Rd, Frisco, TX.
- 801 W Main St, Lewisville, TX.
To order products via Wing drone delivery, customers download the Wing app for iOS or Android device and enter their address to determine if their home is within the Wing drone delivery range. Eligible shoppers can then order items like frozen treats, household essentials, last-minute meal solutions, and fragile items like eggs.
Walmart drone delivery – a brief history
Following launch of its initial DroneUp drone delivery partnership in 2021, Walmart is now providing the service via DroneUp in Arizona, Florida and Texas. The retailer also launched a drone-based instant delivery service at a Neighborhood Market store in Pea Ridge, Ark, in partnership with carbon-free drone provider Zipline in fall 2021.
In September 2020, the retailer partnered with Quest Diagnostics and DroneUp to pilot drone delivery of at-home COVID-19 self-collection kits, and also kicked off a pilot with end-to-end drone delivery company Flytrex to deliver select grocery and household essentials from its stores using automated drones.
Walmart’s existing drone delivery hubs are operated by drone providers DroneUp (Walmart made an unspecified investment in DroneUp in June 2021), Flytrex and Zipline.
The retailer says that 85% of the items sold in one of its Neighborhood Market stores meet the weight and volume requirements for drone delivery. Top-selling items for drone delivery orders include cookies, ice cream, bags of lemons, rotisserie-cooked chickens and paper towels.
Looking ahead, Walmart plans to use its U.S. base of 4,700 stores located within 90% of the country’s population to offer drone delivery services at scale.
How it works
Drones can deliver more than 10,000 eligible Walmart items up to 10 pounds, including fragile items like eggs, in as little as 30 minutes. There are no order minimums and the delivery fee is $3.99. Once the items are packaged and loaded into the drone, the order is then delivered using a cable that gently lowers the package into the customer’s yard.
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Image courtesy of Wing. -
Image courtesy of Wing. -
Image courtesy of Wing.
A look ahead
At the NRF 2024 "Big Show" held in New York City in January 2024, Adam Woodworth, CEO of Wing, and Prathibha Rajashekhar, SVP of innovation & automation at Walmart U.S., spoke about the companies’ partnership and how drone delivery will evolve going forward.
“We will be able to reach 75% of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro population with drones,” said Rajashekhar. “What started out as a novelty has become a solution for real needs. It [drone delivery] is solving real-world problems where immediacy is required.”
Both Rajashekhar and Woodworth touted the speed of drone delivery as a key benefit of the service, citing last-minute ingredient needs while cooking and buying medicine for a sick child as two examples of its practicality.
In addition to the convenience and initial novelty on the consumer side of the delivery, Woodworth added that drone delivery is both eco-friendly and efficient for Walmart. Drone delivery allows for small, lighter orders to be "rightsized" and delivered through a faster and more efficient method.
“A lot of these items are one or two pounds, you're not putting it into a multi thousand pound vehicle, you're putting it into a 10 pound airplane," said Woodworth. "And so when you rightsize the vehicle with the item you're transporting, all those pieces get put together."
As Walmart continues to grow its drone program, Rajashekhar said that customers’ reception has been positive, and that more consumers will be able to experience the convenience of drone delivery.
"We are on a good start, and customers are loving it and are using the service," said Rajashekhar. "We have 4,700 stores at Walmart within 10 miles with 90% of the U.S. population, so a lot of people can get access to this convenience. I'm curious to see how this will evolve and how we can actually bring drone delivery to the forefront, not because it's cool, but because it becomes an essential part of how we do business."