Walmart has a futuristic new weapon in the war on Amazon

Walmart

Walmart is plotting a floating warehouse that would dispatch products by drone. 

The retailer has applied for a patent for a warehouse that would dispatch products by drone, taking them straight to customers' homes, reports Matthew Boyle at Bloomberg. 

"The blimp-style machine would fly at heights between 500 feet and 1,000 feet (as much as 305 meters), contain multiple launching bays, and be operated autonomously or by a remote human pilot," Boyle writes, adding that Amazon was granted a similar patent last year. 

The distribution center would cut out the step of sending a product to a delivery location. 

The patent application is the latest twist in an increasingly heated war between Walmart, long the nation's biggest retailer, and e-commerce giant Amazon. 

Most recently, Walmart has started installing massive online pick-up towers that let customers retrieve products from its Supercenters without consulting workers. 

Walmart pickup tower

Walmart's online sales were $13.7 billion in 2015, compared with Amazon's $107 billion. Walmart is still far ahead in terms of overall sales, however.

Walmart generated $486 billion in fiscal year 2016, which is more than three times as much as Amazon's revenue of $136 billion.

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Contributer : Tech Insider http://ift.tt/2xkyCC5
Walmart has a futuristic new weapon in the war on Amazon Walmart has a futuristic new weapon in the war on Amazon Reviewed by mimisabreena on Monday, August 21, 2017 Rating: 5

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