In this post I discuss the prospects of consumer product delivery by drones and ask: How much are you willing to pay for the service? There is a survey at the end so you we all can see what the trend is. I'll post the results later. PS - this is not sponsored by Amazon.
I love the look of the Tesla Model S, but I’d never get one. Somehow, the opportunity to pay $100K to drive only 300 miles before spending 4 to 9 hours recharging does not appeal to me. I also love the idea of Amazon’s drone delivery initiative Prime Air. But, like the Tesla, the opportunity to pay a lot of money for drone delivery of the latest camera just doesn’t make sense.
Amazon has successfully painted a picture of a future in which its drones push merchandise from its warehouses to nearby consumers in 30 minutes. But to qualify for Prime Air, the order must be less than five pounds, which, according to Bezos, includes 86% of the packages Amazon currently sells. The order must also be small enough to fit in the cargo box that the craft will carry, and the delivery location must be within a 10-mile radius of a participating Amazon order fulfillment center.
What is less than 5 lbs.? Here’s some examples from some recent online shopping trends research:
- Consumer electronics
- Books
- Clothing
...read more here: http://droneanalyst.com/2014/08/24/drone-delivery-how-much/
Take the three question survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/drone-delivery
Comments
Food is an option on Q2. But I'm not really sure food is good one.
While roughly $14 billion in restaurant food and $6 billion in groceries gets delivered in America every year1 it would be very convenient if more of it arrived via delivery. But food is just a bad candidate for drone delivery. Whether from the supermarket, mini-mart, fast food joint, or other restaurant, food is generally very inexpensive per pound. Drone delivery is best suited to high value, lightweight merchandise, including most items at Walgreens, CVS or Rite-Aid, and a meaningful portion of the merchandise at many other large retailers.
So while there may be plenty of hype around drone pizza delivery, basic economics indicate that it’s unlikely many pizzas or groceries will be arriving at your house by drone as part of the forthcoming drone delivery revolution. That said, a wide range of other consumer goods - including but not limited to clothing, electronics, shoes, household items, sporting goods, health & beauty products, and toys - appear to be at least a decent fit with our drone delivery future. Retailers are likely to pick and choose the items that are eligible for drone delivery based upon a variety of factors, with a focus on weight, price, and margin.
Food.
I wouldn't use this drone delivery system, pay extra for what? Besides in a few years your going to have autonomous vehicles running around on the street's and highway's. So you can order what you wanted off the internet then send your vehicle to pick it up. You won't have to pay extra for delivery charges. (Remember the dot come bust.)
I would definitely pay a premium. Sometimes you just need something now. If Amazon thinks they can implement this anytime soon from a technical standpoint, then they must have some incredible engineering. The obstacles are huge with smart navigation near the top IMO.
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