Image credit: Wing
Alphabet-owned Wing, a drone delivery company spun out of Google’s X lab, is significantly expanding its partnership with US retail giant Walmart as the pair move to roll out on-demand drone delivery at a further 150 stores across America.
The rollout will bring Wing’s service to several major metropolitan areas including Los Angeles, Miami, St. Louis and Cincinnati. Walmart is also due to begin operating with Wing in Houston on 15 January, following earlier announcements covering Houston, Orlando, Tampa and Charlotte.
The expansion builds on existing operations in the Dallas–Fort Worth area and Atlanta and will allow more than 40 million people, around 10% of the US population, to access drone delivery. Once complete, Wing expects to be operating from more than 270 Walmart locations by 2027.
Walmart said drone delivery is playing a greater role in its fulfillment strategy. Greg Cathey, Senior Vice President of Digital Fulfillment Transformation at Walmart, explained that drone delivery “plays an important role in our ability to deliver what customers want, exactly when they want it”, adding that the expansion into new metro areas would help customers meet “last-minute needs faster than ever before”.
“When Wing delivery drones operate in these types of dynamic and fast-paced environments, there’s no room for complicated processes to get in the way,” Jesse Suskin, Head of Corporate Affairs at Wing, told Zag Daily in a previous interview.
Wing, which started inside Google in 2012 before becoming an independent Alphabet business in 2018, said usage data shows the service is moving beyond novelty. According to the company, deliveries in the Dallas–Fort Worth and Atlanta metro areas have tripled over the past six months while its most active customers are now using the service around three times a week.
The latest phase of growth is underpinned by changes to Wing’s operations and aircraft. The company recently completed its first commercial flights using a larger drone capable of carrying payloads of up to five pounds, enabling it to fulfil bigger and more varied orders. Wing is also focusing on co-locating its operations at Walmart sites and integrating more closely with store processes.
The company said it is deliberately clustering store launches, opening multiple nearby locations at once, to drive volume and improve the underlying business economics.
The partnership was first launched in 2023 as a pilot at two Walmart stores in the Dallas area, serving around 60,000 households. It later expanded to 18 Walmart Supercentres in Dallas–Fort Worth before extending to Atlanta. While Wing also partners with platforms such as DoorDash, Walmart remains its primary route to commercial scale.
