The Chinese company Alibaba, currently one of the world's largest online retailers , began testing order delivery using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), better known in Brazil as drones, on Wednesday (February 4, 2015).
In all, the company plans to deliver 450 packets of Taobao-branded ginger tea via quadcopters (four-propeller drones) in the cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.
In the tests, the aircraft take off with the tea packages and head to a place close to the residence of randomly selected citizens in one of the three cities mentioned above. Once there, the goods are collected by postal workers, who make the final delivery.
It may take a long time for this type of delivery to be fully implemented, since it requires airspace regulation, which doesn't happen overnight. However, this is a good example of how large companies are constantly working to optimize their business model in order to increase the power of their e-commerce and beat the competition.
Once Alibaba validates drone delivery in China, they will become the pioneers in this technique and history shows that pioneers are rarely surpassed as the public emotionally associates the company's brand with the feat.
Certainly, even digital marketing and e-commerce agencies will have to adapt to the new type of delivery. They will need to develop new messaging and create advertising materials that clearly explain the advantages of the service.
