Walmart to add 300 Zipline drone delivery sites in multi-year US agreement, up from 21 active sites today

· Drones

TLDR

  • Walmart announced on 5 November a multi-year agreement with Zipline to add 300 drone delivery sites across the US.1
  • TechCrunch says the 300 sites compare with 21 active Walmart-Zipline drone delivery sites today.2
  • Chain Store Age notes Walmart also works with Wing, in Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte.3

Walmart announced on 5 November a new multi-year agreement with Zipline to add 300 drone delivery sites nationwide, "with the potential to expand".1 Walmart says the two companies have made drone deliveries together since 2021 and that its drone delivery programme has completed more than 2 million deliveries to date.1 TechCrunch reports that the 300 sites are a significant jump from the 21 active drone delivery sites the two companies have together today.2

Walmart says customers will see drone delivery as an option in the Walmart app or on Walmart.com if their account address is within the delivery range, with tens of thousands of eligible items available in as fast as 30 minutes where available.1 Orders are delivered to the front yard, backyard or driveway, and eligible addresses can also order Walmart items through the Zipline app.1 Zipline's home delivery drone keeps roughly 330 feet above the ground while a pod containing the order descends on a tether, according to Walmart's release, which repeats Zipline's claim of 150 million commercial autonomous miles without a major safety incident.1 TechCrunch says Zipline's Platform 2 home delivery drones carry up to eight pounds and serve customers within a 10-mile radius.2

The announcement came the same day as Zipline's $1.5 billion funding round at a $21.5 billion valuation, according to TechCrunch.2 Chain Store Age notes that Walmart has a longer-running partnership with Wing, launched in the Dallas-Fort Worth market in 2023 and recently scaled to Charlotte, North Carolina, and says Walmart is not placing all its bets on one technology provider.3 The sources do not name where the 300 sites will be or give a rollout timeline.123

Why it matters: Walmart says 90 per cent of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart store and that it is building on its store network to expand drone delivery, though its release names no locations or timeline for the 300 sites.1

Sources

  1. Walmart Expands Nation's Largest Retail Drone Delivery Operation with 300 New Zipline Sites (Walmart)
  2. Zipline hits $21.5B valuation as Walmart expands bet on drone delivery (TechCrunch)
  3. Walmart to add 300 Zipline drone delivery sites nationwide (Chain Store Age)