Walmart to expand drone delivery to 1.8M more Texas homes

Dive Brief:

Walmart is expanding its on-demand drone delivery services to 1.8 million more homes in Texas' Dallas-Fort Worth area, the retailer announced Tuesday.
The expansion includes stores across more than 30 towns and municipalities in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, allowing Walmart to offer drone delivery to up to 75% of the area's population. Customers will receive their orders via drone delivery providers Zipline and Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet.
“This expansion will bring the ultimate convenience of drone delivery to communities across the DFW area," said Prathibha Rajashekhar, Walmart U.S. senior vice president of innovation and automation, in the announcement. "Customers will have access to a broad assortment of items from Walmart available for delivery to their home in just minutes."

Dive Insight:

The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is becoming a hotspot for Walmart's growing drone delivery ambitions. The company launched drone services there with DroneUp in 2022, and last August it debuted its delivery offering with Wing in two area cities, reaching 60,000 homes.

Walmart said recent Federal Aviation Administration exemptions granted to both Wing and Zipline, allowing them to fly drones beyond an observer's visual line of sight, was key in enabling further expansion in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The delivery radius for area stores providing the service will be up to 10 miles — an increase from the 6-mile range rolled out last year. Eligible customers can order thousands of items, ranging from household essentials to groceries, through Wing and Zipline's websites.

Wing will launch its newest drone delivery locations with Walmart in the coming months, with the expansion slated to be completed this year, CEO Adam Woodworth said in a blog post on Wing's website.

Meanwhile, Zipline will begin integrating its drone delivery capabilities into Dallas-Fort Worth Walmart stores later this year after conducting a pilot, co-founder and CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton said in an article on Zipline's website. It currently offers delivery at a Walmart location in Pea Ridge, Arkansas.

"Over time, we plan to serve millions of Dallas residents with thousands of quiet, fast, precise Zipline deliveries every day," Cliffton said. "It will feel like teleportation."