Ever wonder why Walmart is pouring literal tens of millions of dollars into drone delivery? Let's dive into why Walmart believes drones are the future 🚁
Two years ago, Walmart embarked on a mission to bring drone delivery to its customers. This operation spanned 36 stores in 7 states, resulting in over 6,000 successful deliveries. Mission “try drone delivery” was a success 📦
As we speak, Walmart is doubling down on this momentum with WING, a drone delivery provider powered by Alphabet Inc. (Google). This partnership will soon offer drone delivery services from two Dallas stores, reaching an additional 60,000 households. 🏠
☀ 🌈 But everything is not sunshine and rainbows for Walmart drone delivery. If we assume the deliveries are equally spread out, it seems like each of the 36 stores are only performing around 3-4 deliveries per…..hour? day? No, per week.
That’s part of the reason why Walmart is NOT exclusive with Alphabet’s Wing - its drone operations are done by Zipline, DroneUp, and Flytrex . These service providers represent 3 different models of drone delivery and 2 different types of drones. Clearly Walmart is still very much in the experimenting phase and looking for the best model to fine tune its instant delivery operations to 🛠 ⚙
🐘 Which brings us to the elephant in the room - why drones in the first place? Walmart understands the customer demand fueled by the rise of instant grocery delivery startups and the Doordashes of the world. They know that the speed and consumer convenience of drone delivery will be an inevitable requirement, and that if they can’t offer it, they will lose market share
🏎So now, with drones capable of flying on-demand deliveries without breaking the bank (a drone delivery costs less than $4), Walmart is searching for how to best deploy drone delivery, to position itself ahead of its competition. This is precisely the level of conviction and process through which drone delivery will be taken to new heights ✈ ☁
Stay tuned as we witness the limitless potential of drone delivery taking flight! 🛒🚚🌤️ #WalmartInnovation #DroneDelivery #TechInnovation #RetailTech #Logistics #lastmiledelivery #VC #venturecapital
Delhivery's drone venture approved!