Alphabet’s New Drone Delivery Service Can Bring You Bubble Tea Straight From A Shopping Centre Rooftop

Alphabet’s New Drone Delivery Service Can Bring You Bubble Tea Straight From A Shopping Centre Rooftop

Alphabet, the company that owns Google, has announced a big change for its little-known drone business.

Wing was launched by Alphabet as a way to revolutionise delivery services using drone technology. It has previously operated small trials in Canberra and Logan in Queensland.

However, a new partnership with retail property group, Vicinity Centres promises to provide shoppers with a greater range of products for drone delivery than ever before.

Wing is now able to deliver products directly from from retail shopping centre rooftops, directly to homes and businesses in southeast Queensland.

Participating businesses include food and beverage outlets, Sushi Hub, Boost Juice, and Chatime. From today, local community pharmacy TerryWhite Chemmart will also commence offering drone delivery of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, personal care, general health, and beauty products. 

In the first six weeks of service, Wing made more than 2,500 contactless drone deliveries from Grand Plaza to customers in parts of the Logan suburbs of Regents Park, Heritage Park, Park Ridge, Browns Plains, Marsden, Crestmead, and Berrinba. The service will soon expand to more customers and offer delivery from other businesses located at the centre.

Last month, Wing marked two years of drone delivery service in Logan, having already made more than 50,000 drone deliveries to the local community in 2021. The introduction of this new delivery model follows expansion of the service earlier this year, with Wing now offering delivery to 19 suburbs in Logan with a combined population of more than 110,000 people. 

“We’re delighted to explore this new model of delivery with Vicinity Centres. For the first time, we are co-locating our drones with businesses at their premises, rather than local businesses having to co-locate their goods with us at our delivery facility,” Jesse Suskin, Wing’s Head of Policy & Community Affairs, Australia, said. 

“With the increase in consumers’ desire for convenience and speed, on-demand drone delivery can help address the costly last-mile delivery challenge, reduce road congestion and emissions, and create new economic opportunities for businesses by utilising their existing retail space as logistics hubs and fulfillment centres. 

“We look forward to continuing to work with the team at Vicinity Centres to further develop new delivery models that can complement the retail businesses located at Grand Plaza, and if successful, potentially roll out similar models in other locations across Vicinity Centres’ retail property portfolio.”

Vicinity’s Chief Innovation and Information Officer, Justin Mills, said the Wing drone delivery pilot helped retailers unlock the value of their physical store to optimise omnichannel retail.

“The retail industry is changing, and Vicinity is employing a test and learn approach in areas critical to the role of Australian shopping centres in the future. We believe the partnership with Wing will be an important component of our overall distribution and fulfillment strategy and support our new growth strategy,” said Mr Mills.

“Almost two thirds of Australia’s population live within 30 minutes of one of our 61 strategically located centres. This national footprint provides a strong foundation to implement our distribution and fulfilment strategy by rapidly scaling our drone delivery partnership with Wing and further developing our co-located logistics hubs and micro fulfillment centres.

“Exploring new technologies like drone delivery means our retailers may provide customers with game-changing product deliveries in minutes rather than days, while also reducing their carbon footprint.

“Our partnership with Wing is a natural extension of our distribution and fulfilment strategy which will help retailers use physical stores and our shopping centre network to get their products in customer hands quicker and more efficiently.” 

 




Please login with linkedin to comment

alphabet bubble te Drone Google

Latest News

2045: A New Melbourne-Based Creative Agency Founded by Tim Evans and Nick Auditore
  • Marketing

2045: A New Melbourne-Based Creative Agency Founded by Tim Evans and Nick Auditore

2045, a Melbourne-based creative agency founded by Tim Evans and Nick Auditore has just launched. The agency takes its name from the year futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted organic and artificial intelligence would converge. Lead Image: 2045 Team Evans was formerly a Partner and Executive Strategy Director at DT (now AKQA), before co-founding B.B.E in 2015. […]

New Years Eve fireworks
  • Marketing

National Breast Cancer Foundation Announced as Charity Partner For NYE Sydney

The National Breast Cancer Foundation has been announced as the Charity Partner for Sydney New Year’s Eve. The Australian not-for-profit organisation is represented by the pink ribbon and raises money to fund world-class research towards its vision of zero deaths from breast cancer. Research that saves lives through a better understanding of how to prevent […]

Emporium Unveils Unique Christmas Campaign: “Every Tradition Starts Somewhere”
  • Campaigns

Emporium Unveils Unique Christmas Campaign: “Every Tradition Starts Somewhere”

This holiday season, Emporium Melbourne has announced its festive creative campaign that celebrates and encourages the Melbourne community to embrace their personal ‘untraditional traditions’ – the unique traditions that make Christmas truly special for them, and their family. The campaign’s tagline, “Every tradition starts somewhere”, reflects Emporium’s commitment to embracing, inspiring and applauding diverse traditions […]

Reddit Updates Conversation Placement Ads Formats
  • Technology

Reddit Updates Conversation Placement Ads Formats

Reddit has announced updates to its new ads placement with Carousel Ads and Product Ads. These new units, placed in the heart of Reddit discussions, provide an even more dynamic and compelling way for advertisers to scale to relevant audiences, deliver deeper value to users, and drive stronger, full-funnel performance among the hundreds of thousands […]

Full Throttle Into 2024: Drive.com.au Announces 12 New Products In 2024 Upfronts
  • Media

Full Throttle Into 2024: Drive.com.au Announces 12 New Products In 2024 Upfronts

Automotive Network Drive has announced its 2024 upfronts, its biggest in more than a decade, with a suite of more than 12 new products that underpin its vision to be the number one automotive network in Australia. Now in its 27th year and with a monthly audience of 2.45 million, Drive is leveraging its reputation […]

oOh!media Unveils 51 New Large Format Sites This Year
  • Advertising

oOh!media Unveils 51 New Large Format Sites This Year

oOh!media continues to rapidly expand its large format digital network, launching seven new sites at premium locations across major arterials in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The latest large format digitals include another premium site in the exclusive Sydney suburb of Mosman. Positioned at the gateway of the lower north shore on Military Road, the high-impact […]

Seven Uses Gen AI to Push Tech Boundaries With Ignite
  • Media

Seven Uses Gen AI to Push Tech Boundaries With Ignite

The Seven Network revealed the results of the second round of its flagship innovation initiative – Ignite – which saw seven employee-led generative AI concepts selected for prototype development. An inspiring three-week event, Ignite brings together internal cross-functional teams of engineers, data scientists, product managers and staff from across the business to collaborate and develop […]

Australian Agency Engaging.io Slam Dunks With Texas NBA Team
  • Marketing

Australian Agency Engaging.io Slam Dunks With Texas NBA Team

Australian tech consultancy Engaging.io has scored a major business win with the appointment by a leading Texas-based US National Basketball Association (NBA) team to revolutionise its marketing and communication strategies. The powerhouse NBA franchise turned to Sydney-headquartered Engaging to spearhead a major HubSpot implementation, driving greater efficiencies, personalisation and a more seamless experience for fans. […]

Dentsu QLD Partners With DeadlyScience & UnLtd To Drive STEM Programs With First Nations Youth
  • Media

Dentsu QLD Partners With DeadlyScience & UnLtd To Drive STEM Programs With First Nations Youth

Dentsu Queensland has formed a strategic partnership with DeadlyScience, an organisation that provides science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) resources to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander students across Australia. The partnership is in collaboration with UnLtd, which helps connect the media and marketing industries with charities helping children and young people at risk. This is […]

Revolution360 Parent Venetian Media Group Acquires Digital Native
  • Technology

Revolution360 Parent Venetian Media Group Acquires Digital Native

Victoria-based Venetian Media Group (VMG) has acquired web and digital strategy shop Digital Native. Lead image L-R: VMG CEO, Michael Fishwick; Digital Native big chief, Matt Gardan.  Digital Native specialises in digital strategy, branding, UX and web design it has deep experience in renewables, emerging technology and not-for-profit. Its web design process and collaborative approach […]

Murmur Group Launches High-Octane Campaign For Rare Spares Rockynats
  • Campaigns

Murmur Group Launches High-Octane Campaign For Rare Spares Rockynats

One of Australia’s biggest off-street car and motorbike festivals, Rare Spares Rockynats, is returning to Rockhampton for Easter 2024 and has kicked off its promotional calendar with a high-octane media campaign. The two-phase campaign, via award-winning marketing agency Murmur-Group, will launch across large format out-of-home and retail placements and will be supported by local radio, […]