Walmart Inc. made more than 6,000 deliveries by drone last year from the seven states where the service is available, the company said Monday.
Once an order is received, Walmart said, drones can deliver the items in 30 minutes or less.
"I'm incredibly proud of our team for creating the largest drone delivery footprint of any U.S. retailer and providing customers with an incredibly fast -- and innovative -- option for delivery," said Vik Gopalakrishnan, vice president of innovation and automation for Walmart U.S.
Gopalakrishnan said the company has gotten a positive response from customers and expects to make even more progress this year.
Walmart did not immediately respond to an inquiry about its goals for increasing deliveries and adding delivery hubs in more states this year.
Walmart said in a news release Monday that 36 of its stores now serve as drone delivery hubs. These are located in Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Texas has 11 hubs -- more than any other state.
Arkansas has four hubs, including one each in Farmington and Pea Ridge. Locations in Rogers and Bentonville opened in July.
The Farmington Neighborhood Market became the Bentonville-based retailer's first drone delivery hub when it opened in November 2021. Walmart worked with DroneUp LLC at that location, and uses tower-launched drones from Zipline in Pea Ridge.
Walmart said in May that it would start using DroneUp for deliveries in Phoenix; Orlando and Tampa, Fla.; Salt Lake City; and Richmond, Va. This expansion would make drone delivery available to about 4 million more households, Walmart said at the time.
Besides DroneUp and San Francisco-based Zipline, Walmart uses Israeli drone manufacturer Flytrex.
But Walmart first joined with DroneUp, of Virginia Beach, Va., in 2020 to try out deliveries of covid-19 at-home test kits. Walmart said the trial showed that drones could deliver orders to customers in minutes rather than hours.
Walmart U.S. said the following June that it was investing in DroneUp as part of its effort to develop a scalable last-mile delivery option.
Other retailers use drone delivery, though not at the same scale as Walmart.
Google parent Alphabet's Wing drones started the company's first commercial delivery service in the U.S. on April 7, Wing's Adam Woodworth said. Wing delivers health and wellness products for Walgreens in two cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
"This is an important milestone for Wing and drone delivery in the U.S.," Woodworth said.
Wing, based in the Silicon Valley, operates mainly in Australia. But it has tested its delivery service in the U.S. in Virginia and Texas since 2021.
Wing added several other retail clients last year, including Blue Bell Creameries, an ice cream maker in central Texas; and easyvet's prescription pet medications. It also delivers first aid kits from Texas Health, a faith-based, nonprofit health system.
Amazon is a latecomer to the drone delivery market, starting just last month to make deliveries in two cities: Lockeford in Northern California, and College Station, Texas.
Unlike Walmart and other retailers who work with existing drone companies, Amazon's Prime Air division designed and built its own drones, the company said in a blog post.
The process has taken almost a decade, the company said in a blog post, with "a team of safety, aerospace, science, robotics, software, hardware, testing and manufacturing experts working to ensure our system meets the rigors required for an aerospace product."