Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) is set to substantially expand its drone delivery service across 75% of the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) population, building on its momentum with the largest drone delivery footprint of any U.S. retailer.
The drone delivery expansion includes stores across more than 30 towns and municipalities in the DFW metroplex.
The deliveries will be powered by on-demand drone delivery providers, Wing and Zipline. Both are approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly their drones without a dedicated observer being able to see the drone at all times, known as Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS).
With drone delivery, customers can receive their items in 30 minutes or less and some deliveries can happen as fast as 10 minutes. The delivery radius for stores offering the service will be up to 10 miles.
Over the last two years of trialing drone delivery, the retailer has completed over 20,000 safe deliveries.
"Customers will have access to a broad assortment of items from Walmart available for delivery to their home in just minutes," said Prathibha Rajashekhar, senior vice president, Innovation & Automation, Walmart U.S. "Drone delivery is not just a concept of the future, it's happening now and will soon be a reality for millions of additional Texans."
At CES, the retail giant also showcased how technologies like AI, GenAI, and AR will reimagine its role.
Price Action: WMT shares are trading higher by 0.08% at $159.43 in premarket on the last check Wednesday.