Lowe's Pilots Drone Delivery as New Way to Quickly Buy Paintbrushes or Batteries

Lowe’s has launched drone delivery near Charlotte, N.C. with Alphabet-owned Wing as well as DoorDash. The service went live to customers in the area earlier this month, according to the company. Shoppers near the Lowe’s store in Matthews, N.C., can now select drone delivery from that location as a delivery option. Lowe’s also has a dedicated storefront on DoorDash specifically for drone delivery. Wing will use its drones to fulfill the orders in as quickly as 20 minutes, according to DoorDash. While Walmart and Amazon have rapidly scaled drone-delivery capabilities in the U.S. over the past few years, Lowe's appears to be the first major, dedicated home improvement retailer to experiment with this delivery method. In 2024, PwC projected that business-to-consumer drone deliveries would grow globally from 5 million to 808 million annual orders by 2034. Due to a weight limit of 2.5 pounds, consumers shouldn’t expect for drones to bring home a dishwasher or kitchen cabinets. Instead, Lowe’s is focusing on smaller products that are easily forgotten but essential to completing a task such as hand tools, paint, soap, cleaner, and batteries. “Home improvement is an inherently friction-filled experience," said Seemantini Godbole, chief information and AI officer at Lowe’s, in a statement. "Any technology we implement is designed to eliminate that friction so our customers can complete their projects quickly." Lowe's has not yet determined whether the pilot program will expand to additional stores, Neelima Sharma, Lowe’s svp of ecommerce and omni-commerce product and technology, told ADWEEK. "The whole idea is for us to really take this opportunity to test and learn, be able to see how our customers respond to it, what they like, how can we tweak or evolve the program,” Sharma said. “We are making sure we're working out the kinks.” Sharma said it is also too early to think about incorporating advertising from the retailer's ad business, Lowe’s Media Network, into the drone delivery storefront in DoorDash. However, there may be future opportunities with using drones as ad inventory. “I wouldn't rule that out,” she said. “Whenever we have the right moments, we always see opportunities.” She said the company chose to offer drone delivery via DoorDash out of convenience, as many of its customers already shop through the platform. Currently, Lowe’s drone deliveries are limited to the DoorDash app, but Sharma said if the company was to scale them up, they would eventually be available on the Lowe’s website and app as well as its Mylow AI assistant. In one example, the drone service could be useful when a car driver is stuck in traffic because drones aren’t limited during rush hour. In other examples, someone painting their child’s room could place a delivery for a new paintbrush while they’re in the middle of the project, or a customer could order batteries for their smoke detector as soon as it begins chirping. “Drone delivery lends itself really well to both pro customers and homeowner customers in the moments that they need us,” Sharma said. Drop-in deliveries Elsewhere, Amazon and Walmart continue to grow their drone investments. Amazon's Prime Air is planned to be in almost 500 cities and towns by the end of 2026, the company said in August. Walmart recently expanded its partnership with Wing. In June, the companies announced that they would expand their drone delivery presence to nearly 20 regions in the U.S. Walmart reached one million drone deliveries in May through Wing as well as another drone delivery provider, Zipline. "Our work with Walmart has shown that drone delivery isn’t just a novelty," Heather Rivera, Wing’s chief business officer, said in a statement in June. "It’s a service many customers count on multiple times per week." Lowe's and other retailers are battling Amazon and Walmart for a piece of the drone market, which is also an opportunity for brands, said Jeff Greenspoon, North America CEO of Kantar. "For retailers, it becomes part of the customer experience and a real source of competitive advantage," Greenspoon said. "For brands, it raises the stakes on being both different and present at the exact moment of need in inventory, search, recommendations, and retail media. As delivery gets faster, the battle to be the brand people think of, the brand they'll pay more for, and the brand that can arrive fastest starts to converge."

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Lowe's Pilots Drone Delivery as New Way to Quickly Buy Paintbrushes or Batteries

The home improvement retailer is working with Alphabet's Wing and DoorDash

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