Wing CFO: 74 percent of consumers seek swift deliveries
Drone delivery startup Wing sees strong demand for rapid fulfillment of fast-mile needs, says company CFO Shannon Nash. Their survey found 74% of consumers want fast, on-demand deliveries. As the holiday season and last-minute needs accelerate, Wing aims to serve this market.
The Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) subsidiary already conducted over 350,000 deliveries across 3 continents. Nash says partnerships with Walmart (WMT), Doordash (DASH), and other retailers enable further reach. She notes Wing looks to grow in new metro areas with partners, building on success serving urban communities.
However, Nash highlights opportunity for more everyday household items and grocery deliveries. While food drives volume now, consumers want speed for other daily essentials purchases too. As instant shopping expectations rise, Wing believes there's room for drones beyond takeout in last-mile delivery scenarios.
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Video Transcript
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SEANA SMITH: A fight for control of the skies, and last or fast-mile delivery, Alphabet's Wing venture is among one of a few freight delivery drones, looking to elevate its retail customer experience and compete with e-commerce giants like Amazon. Now, with the holiday season in full swing, Wing sees appetite for fast-mile delivery growing now more than ever.
Joining me now we want to bring in Shannon Nash, Wing's chief financial officer, along with our very own Diane King Hall. It's great to see both of you. Shannon let me start with a recent report that you just published. You looked into the fact, I guess, how people are shopping ahead of the holiday season, what this need would potentially look like for what you're calling fast-mile delivery. What did you find?
SHANNON NASH: You know, we found that 74% of the folks that we surveyed really saw a need for this instant fast-mile delivery. And we're talking about things like it's the holiday party, everything is ready, you're about to set the table, and somebody we won't name who forgot the dinner rolls. And it's going to take, you know, at least 30 minutes to an hour to make that happen.
We're seeing a lot of customers saying that for this fast-mile delivery, they're looking at things like groceries. In fact, 43% said that they would use this service for last-minute groceries, and then another 23% said they would use it for those gifts. You can't go to the party with an empty hand, so you know, gifts are also something very popular among customers.
DIANE KING HALL: Shannon, first I want to congratulate you. I saw the note today with the CFO of the Year by Datarails in the tech category. So congratulations are in order. Next, I want to ask you about the expansion strategy for Wing. Obviously, there is not-- there are not a lot of players in the drone delivery space. So what is your market expansion strategy, especially when you compete against the likes of an Amazon?
SHANNON NASH: Well, Diane, we've done over 350,000 deliveries. We've operated in three continents. In Australia, in Europe we were in Finland, and now we're in Ireland, and then in the United States, we started in Virginia, and now we are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with Walmart. And so you know, our expansion plans are to keep doing expansions, particularly in the US, we're focused on expanding with partnerships like with Walmart, in Australia, we've operated with DoorDash, so continuing to, you know, expand with those partners.
DIANE KING HALL: And I want to ask you about just the challenges that drone delivery faces. I know there can be some challenges when you think about, say, urban or rural areas. How are you all surmounting those challenges, or addressing those challenges?
SHANNON NASH: Yeah. We started, as I mentioned, in an urban area in the United States in a place called Christiansburg, Virginia, which is very close to Virginia Tech. And I'm a UVA grad, so you know, we're rivals but I'm very happy that that's where we started our business. And what we found Diane is, you know, we have actually a couple that won the world record for the most drone deliveries in a rural area, if you will.
They've done over 1,000 deliveries. And the number one thing that they ordered, they'd ordered a lot of food. But the thing that surprised me the most is they ordered almost 100 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, so there's a lot of uses in the urban area. And then of course, as I mentioned before, we've expanded, particularly in Australia with DoorDash, and that's in more urban environments. And we are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Frisco, Texas with Walmart in a more urban area, and we've been able to show that our drones are able to meet both environments.
