Walmart, a major U.S. retailer, said it will introduce additional drone delivery services to 150 stores this year.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Walmart plans to expand drone delivery service to 150 stores over the next year in cooperation with “Wing,” an unmanned drone company operated by Alphabet. Through this, the company aims to operate drone delivery service at more than 270 locations across the U.S. by the end of 2027.
The plan is to significantly expand services operating in Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta to Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Miami, and the company expects the number of service users to increase from about 2 million to more than 40 million.
“We want to help customers get what they want at any time and place they want,” said Greg Cash, senior vice president of digital fulfillment innovation at Walmart. “Drone delivery is useful when customers need one or two items quickly.”
The plan comes amid a buoyant atmosphere in related industries after the green light was given to the drone delivery business in August last year when federal authorities proposed rules allowing drones to fly outside of sight.
Until now, several companies, including Walmart, Amazon, and DoorDash, have started delivering drones, but most of them have been sporadic in only some areas. Companies had to deploy surveillance personnel or obtain individual exemptions for each drone due to regulations that drones must be within human view, but the cost reduction was negligible. Concerns about noise, safety, and personal life in the community, and flight restrictions in case of bad weather were also problematic.
Experts predict that the regulatory change will make it easier for companies to expand their drone delivery services. Robyn Riddell, a drone delivery expert, said, “All the fundamental obstacles discussed three years ago have already been overcome. All we have left is to scale up and commercialize.”
Wing drones are designed to carry items up to 5 pounds and can fly up to 6 miles each way. The drone delivers online orders in small packages in a row, and the delivery arrives within about 30 minutes of the order.
Urgent items such as food materials and general medicines are mainly delivered, and about 25% of customers currently use drone service three times a week.
Although Walmart and Wing did not disclose the cost per delivery, WSJ quoted Walmart’s website as saying, “Walmart provides free drone delivery service to Plus members and charges $19.99 per delivery for regular customers.” It is free to order through the Wing app.
SAM KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
