As customers move from offline to online shopping for their retail needs and delivery expenses increase, many retailers are adopting autonomous last-mile delivery to lower costs.
"Since the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdowns, autonomous last-mile delivery technology has been gaining momentum in retail as it can fight the spread of airborne diseases, cut down traffic congestion and carbon emissions, and take the customer experience to the next level," said Kiran Raj, Practice Head of Disruptive Tech at GlobalData.
GlobalData's report Retail 3.0: Key disruptive forces to accelerate tech transformation noted that Walmart, Amazon and the Ocado Group were the leading publicly listed retailers introducing autonomous last-mile delivery solutions. This means the businesses are utilising robots, drones, self-driving delivery vans, cars and trucks.
In 2020 Walmart partnered with the startup, DroneUp, to launch trial deliveries of at-home COVID-19 tests. The partnership has since continued, with Walmart making an undisclosed investment in the drone company in June 2021. In addition, Walmart recently announced the expansion of the DroneUp network for the end of 2022. They hope to reach four million residents across six states. A similar investment was made to California's all-electric, autonomous vehicle startup Cruise in April 2021.
After launching the electric delivery system Amazon Scout in Washington in 2019, the company invested in a purpose-built development facility in Helsinki, Finland. Amazon is testing Prime Air, the drone delivery service in California, and working with the Federal Aviation Administration to gain approval for such deliveries. In November of 2021, the company partnered with Zipline, a drone company, to help transport medical items during the pandemic.
Online UK Retailer, Ocado, worked with British startup Wayve for autonomous last-mile operations in London. It has put an investment of over $13 million into AI delivery.
"Technological advances such as AI have enabled the autonomous last-mile delivery via drones, robots, and vehicles. Retail giants including Amazon, Walmart, and JD.com have made significant progress to deliver packages over long distances without human intervention. Following the trend, many retail players are expected to switch to autonomous last-mile delivery solutions that offer not only cost reduction but also address the high demand for online deliveries. However, the absence of country-wide policy standardisation poses challenges to the technology's adoption at scale," said Sourabh Nyalkalkar, Project Manager at GlobalData.
