12 Business View Magazine - August 2016
Opening
Lines
The Rising Demand for Drones
in the Retail Sector
Interest in drones from the retail sector is growing
rapidly as competitive pressures push retailers and
distributors to develop new ways to make their sup-
ply chains more efficient, to automate warehouses,
and to reduce delivery costs. Wal-Mart, the nation’s
largest retailer, recently announced plans to use
drones for inventory management in its warehous-
es. Amazon, the nation’s largest internet retailer, is
researching the use of drones to deliver packages
to consumers. Global e-commerce giant Alibaba
is testing delivery drones in China while DHL is al-
ready using drones to deliver packages in Germany.
While interest from big name retailers has increased
the hype surrounding drones, sales of drones in re-
tail and distribution applications are expected to be
a drop in the bucket compared to sales of drones in
other commercial and consumer applications. His-
