Walmart is collaborating with Wing and Zipline to reach up to 75% of the population in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Texas.
The expansion includes stores in over 30 towns and cities within the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan complex, allowing Walmart to offer drone delivery services to approximately 1.8 million homes in the area. Customers will receive their orders through drone delivery service providers Zipline and Wing, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
The Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area is becoming a focal point for Walmart’s drone delivery strategy. The company initiated drone services there with DroneUp in 2022. By August 2023, Walmart had introduced drone delivery services with Wing in two cities in the region, reaching 60,000 homes.
The delivery radius for the regional stores extends up to 16 km. Eligible customers can order thousands of items, from household essentials to groceries, through the Wing and Zipline websites.
Wing will also launch its latest drone delivery locations with Walmart in the coming months. The expansion is expected to be completed later this year.
Meanwhile, Zipline plans to integrate its drone delivery capabilities into Walmart stores in Dallas-Fort Worth by the end of the year, following successful trials. The company currently provides delivery services at a Walmart location in Pea Ridge, Arkansas.
Zipline’s CEO, Cliffton Keller Rinaudo, stated that the company plans to serve millions of Dallas residents with thousands of silent, fast, and accurate Zipline deliveries every day.
According to Prathibha Rajashekhar, Walmart’s Senior Vice President of Innovation and Automation, this expansion will bring convenience to the drone delivery needs of communities across the region. Customers will have the option to explore various items available at Walmart and have them delivered to their doorstep in just a few minutes.
During the two-year trial period, Walmart completed over 20,000 deliveries of items such as snacks, beverages, and cold medications, including fragile items like eggs. With this expansion, Dallas-Fort Worth is initially becoming Walmart’s largest drone delivery market in the United States.
