Consumers cagey over drone delivery

Monday, April 20, 2015 - 10:57 by Mike Price

There has been much debate about drones in the past few years, with Amazon’s development of autonomous delivery drones being a particularly hot topic. Now a report from eDigitalResearch, has looked at how consumers feel about the way drones might be used to fulfil orders placed online.

Just 33 per cent of those questioned said that they would be interested in getting products delivered to their homes via drones. This suggests that the concept of drone delivery is still not that thrilling for the majority of the population at the moment.

Of course, Amazon is still a long way from rolling out drones in the UK or anywhere else for that matter, so once people actually see them in action and have the option to use them, they may be more enthusiastic.

Sixty eight per cent of people said that the biggest advantage of drones being deployed by retailers will be the faster delivery of items ordered through safe shopping online. Forty per cent even said that they think delivery options will be more affordable, as well as increasing convenience for customers.

Indeed, the ability for a drone to drop off a package in someone’s back garden, even if they are not in, will be an easier option than having to answer the door to a human delivery person driving a van. But half of the survey’s respondents said that they were concerned about what might happen to drone-delivered packages if they were left outside and unattended for extended periods.

Consumers are also worried about the types of packages that delivery drones will be able to handle, with most larger items likely to require delivery via wheeled vehicles for the foreseeable future. Whatever your opinion on drones, it seems that they are going to play a growing role in our lives.