Russian online retailer Wildberries greenlights pilot involving drone deliveries for orders

Wildberries has begun testing drone delivery of orders placed on its online marketplace. The first unmanned deliveries were carried out from a logistics centre to one of its pickup points in St. Petersburg, Russia.

This was tested out with the support of the St. Petersburg Transport Committee, using a certified domestic unmanned aircraft system. The trials included a route featuring multiple landing points.

“We are continuously working to make the delivery process as fast and convenient as possible for our customers,” says Maxim Kim, Head of Wildberries’s Pickup Point Development Department. “Drone assisted delivery is one of the innovations we are testing and believe in, particularly for hard to reach regions.”

Wildberries processes more than 20 million orders daily through its online marketplace. To enhance the speed and efficiency of order delivery, the company is expanding its logistics infrastructure across Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other markets, while also piloting various technologies.

Currently, more than 90% of its orders are delivered to pickup points, where customers can collect their purchases and return items on the spot. The company operates over 90,000 pickup points across eight countries, most of which are operated by local entrepreneurs under a franchise model.

Some are located in remote areas – for instance, Wildberries recently opened one in a mountainous region of Tajikistan at an altitude of approximately 2,500 metres.

At its major warehouses, Wildberries employs automated ground vehicles (AGVs) to move storage racks and robotic systems equipped with suction cup grippers to handle and sort products. The aim here is to accelerate order processing and free employees from physically demanding or repetitive tasks.

It also integrates artificial intelligence (AI) across its marketplace operations. AI systems assist customers in searching for products using images or voice queries, while sellers can leverage tools to quickly create product listings and incorporate AI generated virtual models into their catalogues.

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