Australia’s first on-demand residential drone delivery service Wing has partnered with Vicinity Centres to pilot a new model of delivery, flying goods from retail shopping centre rooftops, directly to homes and businesses in southeast Queensland.
The first-of-its-kind drone delivery pilot kicked off in mid-August delivering goods from a range of businesses located at the centre directly to consumers by drone from Grand Plaza in Logan.
Participating businesses include TerryWhite Chemmart, which offers drone delivery of beauty products, as well as over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, personal care and general items, as well as food and beverage outlets such as Sushi Hub, Boost Juice and Chatime.
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.
“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,” Wing Australia head of policy and community affairs, Jesse Suskin 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 potentially roll out similar models in other locations across Vicinity Centres’ retail property portfolio.”
This article was first published on RetailBiz.