Milestone! Walmart will complete more than 6,000 drone deliveries in 2022!

It is learned that according to foreign media reports, the US retail giant Walmart completed more than 6,000 deliveries by drones during 2022. After the customer places an order, Walmart's drones are able to deliver the goods in 30 minutes or less.

Currently, 36 Walmart stores in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia have drone delivery centers operated by drone providers DroneUp (in which Walmart made an unspecified investment in June 2021), Flytrex, and Zipline.

Walmart said that at one of its Neighborhood Market stores, 85% of the items met the weight and volume requirements for drone delivery. The best-selling items for drone delivery orders included cookies, ice cream, bags of lemons, roast chicken and paper towels.

Walmart plans to expand drone delivery services using its 4,700 stores located within 90% of the country’s population. In a recent survey by Circuit, a provider of route optimization software, Walmart was named the “Most Trusted Company for Autonomous and Drone Food Delivery” and the “Most Trusted Provider for Autonomous and Drone Delivery.”

Walmart has been promoting drone delivery services. In September 2020, Walmart partnered with , trying to use drones to deliver food and daily necessities to residents in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In the same year, it also partnered with Quest Diagnostics and DroneUp to test the use of drones to deliver home "new coronavirus" test kits.

Walmart is also working with drone delivery company Zipline to deliver health and wellness products on demand in the fall of 2021. The drone program with Zipline enables on-demand delivery within one hour, with a service radius of 50 miles, and can be delivered from Walmart stores.

Walmart partnered with DroneUp to initially launch drone delivery services at three stores in northwest Arkansas in late 2021. Now, the retail giant has expanded the service to areas such as Arizona, Florida and Texas.

Walmart's drones are now able to deliver more than 10,000 eligible Walmart items, including fragile items such as eggs, in just 30 minutes. There is no minimum order and the delivery fee is $3.99. Once the items are packaged and loaded into the drone, the items will land in the customer's yard via a cable.

“I’m incredibly proud of our team for creating the largest drone delivery footprint among U.S. retailers and providing customers with an incredibly fast and innovative delivery option,” said Vik Gopalakrishnan, vice president of innovation and automation at Walmart U.S. “We’re encouraged by the positive response from customers and look forward to making even more progress in 2023.”

Editor ✎ Nicole/

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