American retailer Walmart said it was signing three separate deals to accelerate the use of aerial drones for deliveries. The company's plan to expand its on-demand deliveries comes as its competitors, including Amazon, have also moved to integrate the new technology into their respective delivery systems.
The first deal that Walmart signed was a partnership with on-demand drone delivery company Flytrex for its logistics operations in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Flytrex, which operates mainly in North Dakota and Iceland. It has agreed to make grocery and household essential deliveries for Walmart.
The retailer says it plans to enter into a contract with American medical product delivery company Zipline next year. The San Francisco-based drone delivery company is best known for its drone-based medical delivery projects in Ghana and Rwanda. Walmart plans to partner with Zipline to deliver health and wellness products in the U.S. early next year.
Walmart said it was in the process of launching pilots for the delivery of at-home COVID-19 kits with two separate companies - DroneUp and Quest Diagnostics. The company hopes to make on-demand deliveries of the kits to customers in Las Vegas and New York within the coming months.
Drones have come a long way from being just a toy to becoming an economically viable form of delivery. The surge in e-commerce activity, partly caused by the spread of the pandemic, has forced retailers to find innovative solutions to find quicker and much-safer ways to deliver items to customers.
In the U.S. people are more used to seeing drones, which are increasingly being used for more commercial applications as opposed to personal use. With person-to-person deliveries posing higher risks for both couriers and consumers, the use of contract-less delivery systems has become increasingly attractive.
Walmart's senior vice president for customer products, Tom Ward, said in a statement that drones are becoming the go-to platform to meet the changing needs of customers.
"Drones now are at a place where I think that technology represents a huge opportunity," Ward said in a statement.
Over the past few months, retailers such as Walmart, along with their third-party partners, have worked to overcome certain hurdles associated with the technology. This includes the reduction of costs of deliveries, drones, and the acquisitions of permits from aviation regulators.
