Google (Alphabet) and Walmart are deepening their alliance to compete with Amazon on the logistics and AI commerce fronts.
Google's Wing is scaling drone delivery to 150 additional Walmart stores
* Walmart is expanding its partnership with Wing (one of Google's Other Bets). They are adding 150 more stores to the drone delivery network.
* Once the expansion is complete, Wing will operate from 270 Walmart stores and serve 10% of the US population.
* Last mile delivery is the most expensive part of the supply chain. If Wing can prove unit economic viability at scale, it will be a huge margin saver for Walmart.
Walmart integrates Gemini for AI assisted shopping
* Walmart is is adding Gemini directly into the shopping experience.
* This allows for native checkout where users can discover, select and checkout via Google Pay directly within the Gemini interface.
Google launches a new AI Agent Commerce Protocol
* Google announced a new open standard called the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for AI agent based shopping.
* This has been co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart.
* Payments would be via Google Pay or Paypal.
Sources:
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/11/wing-to-expand-drone-delivery-to-another-150-walmart-stores/
Google and Walmart: Drone expansion, Gemini shopping and new AI Commerce protocol
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Posted by Not69Batman
1 Comment
Sounds good for Google if it works. They need more than a search engine for future growth.