Lowe’s is taking to the skies, becoming the first home improvement retailer to launch drone delivery through partnerships with DoorDash and Wing.
Customers can get more than 100 project essentials delivered in as fast as 20 minutes. Chris Walton explains why forgotten painter’s tape, caulk, batteries and other last-minute essentials could make home improvement one of the strongest use cases for drone delivery.
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Transcripts
Speaker A:
Lowes is launching Drone Delivery in partnership with Doordash and Alphabet's Wing, becoming the first home improvement retailer to offer this service, according to CNBC.
Speaker A:
The pilot is live at a store in Matthews, North Carolina, a Charlotte suburb, giving customers access to more than 100 products in as fast as 20 minutes.
Speaker A:
With plans for expansion, customers order through a dedicated Lowe's by Drones storefront in the Doordash app, which wing.
Speaker A:
Drones carry about 2 1/2 pounds per flight and cover roughly a 5 mile radius around the store.
Speaker A:
The assortment focuses on small, easily forgotten project essentials.
Speaker B:
Hand tools, paint supplies, painters tape, caulk,.
Speaker A:
Batteries, soap, and all purpose cleaner.
Speaker A:
I love that soaps in there, Ella.
Speaker A:
I find that really interesting.
Speaker B:
Do you find that interesting?
Speaker A:
But more importantly, what is the last question of the day?
Speaker C:
Okay, last question.
Speaker C:
Finale A and M wants to know, is Lowe's delivery PR Steak or sizzle?
Speaker A:
Ooh, steak or sizzle.
Speaker A:
I had a steak last night.
Speaker A:
It was very good, actually.
Speaker A:
Oh man.
Speaker A:
I actually, I think this story's great.
Speaker B:
I'm just going to come out and say it.
Speaker B:
I think this story's great because I believe that the need is probably there to get things to customers quickly when you're in a home improvement situation.
Speaker B:
You know, like, yeah, I probably need.
Speaker A:
Some caulk or I probably need some.
Speaker B:
Soap or some cleaning detergent or what.
Speaker A:
Else the heck did they say?
Speaker A:
Ella?
Speaker B:
Yeah, I probably need some painters tape.
Speaker B:
Yeah, if you, if you start a paint job and you run out of painters tape, heck yeah, I need that quickly, I need that fast.
Speaker B:
And Lowe's is going to want to deliver it at low cost, so.
Speaker B:
So net net.
Speaker A:
I think it's worth the test.
Speaker A:
And here's the thing, here's the thing.
Speaker A:
If it works, it's pretty darn validating.
Speaker B:
Because if you want to use it the way they describe the experiences, you have to really find it.
Speaker B:
You have to go to a dedicated.
Speaker A:
Lowe's by Drone storefront.
Speaker B:
I mean, how many people are going to find that?
Speaker B:
So that's my one misgiving with this whole thing.
Speaker B:
But at the test stage, it isn't necessarily bad to have the customer find.
Speaker A:
It that way because if it works,.
Speaker B:
You know, you have something.
Speaker B:
However.
Speaker A:
However, my one caveat is I think it could also lead to a lot of false negatives if the experience is just too hard to find for most of your customers.
Speaker A:
But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, I like it a lot and I think it's a very valid test to run, particularly because I would imagine the volume of these types of concerns will be low or lower than normal, and so the drone flight should be pretty easy to manage.
