Walmart to Add 300 Drone Delivery Sites With Zipline, Promising Delivery in as Fast as 30 Minutes
Walmart announced on November 5 at its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas, a new multi-year agreement with drone delivery company Zipline to add 300 drone delivery sites across the United States, with the potential to expand further. Walmart says it operates the nation's largest retail drone delivery program and has completed more than 2 million drone deliveries to date.
Customers order through the Walmart app, Walmart's website or the Zipline app, and the drone delivers to a home's front yard, backyard or driveway. The aircraft stays about 330 feet in the air and lowers its delivery pod on a tether. Tens of thousands of items are eligible, and where the service is available, delivery can arrive in as fast as 30 minutes.
The two companies have worked together since 2021. Walmart says 90% of America lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store, giving the drone network a dense base to build on. Zipline describes itself as the world's largest drone delivery service by miles flown, with 150 million commercial autonomous miles flown without a major safety incident.
"Drone delivery is about getting people what they need, right when they need it," said Greg Cathey, Walmart's senior vice president of eCommerce Fulfillment Transformation. Zipline co-founder and CEO Keller Cliffton said the partnership is turning drone delivery from a novelty into everyday infrastructure. Melanie Millsap, a customer in Royse City, Texas, said having formula and diapers set down in her front yard spared her trips out with a newborn.
Drone delivery is the fastest tier in Walmart's same-day lineup, alongside 30-minute-or-less delivery, Express delivery in an hour or less, on-demand delivery in three hours or less, and scheduled delivery. Walmart did not publish a full list of the 300 new sites or a complete rollout timetable, saying the sites will open across the country under the agreement.
(Source: Walmart)
Source: Walmart
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Zipline配送无人机起飞（资料图）。Wikimedia Commons 图片（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 / Photo: A Zipline delivery drone at launch (file photo). Image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
