Article
Walmart Pay ready for a close-up
Consumers can access the new system through the retailer's existing mobile app; the system relies on QR code technology to complete a purchase at the physical point of sale.
December 10, 2015 by Will Hernandez — Editor, NetWorld Media Group
Walmart is the latest entrant into the mobile payments battle as it debuts a new service called Walmart Pay that consumers access through the retailer's existing mobile app. The system relies on QR code technology to complete a purchase at the physical point of sale.
Walmart launched the system Thursday in select stores in Bentonville, Arkansas, where the retailer is based, and plans a nationwide rollout to all 4,600 locations early next year.
"The Walmart app was built to make shopping faster and easier," Neil Ashe, president and CEO of Walmart global eCommerce, said in a statement. "Walmart Pay is the latest example — and a powerful addition — of how we are transforming the shopping experience by seamlessly connecting online, mobile and stores for the 140 million customers who shop with us weekly."
Consumers who have any payment information stored in their Walmart.com account can link those credentials to the mobile app and Walmart Pay. Walmart will allow consumers to use credit or debit cards as a payment option. Consumers also can use the retailer's own gift cards as a funding source.
When a consumer is ready to pay, they open the Walmart app and activate the camera function from within the app. The consumer then scans a QR code at the register which in turn connects to the payment card on file with Walmart.
The retailer then sends an electronic receipt to the app that the consumer can view at anytime.
Walmart executives said during a media briefing Wednesday that one reason the company decided to go this route with Walmart Pay was scale.
Some 22 million consumers actively use the Walmart app each month across different Android and iOS devices. The company wanted a system that its customers could access on almost any device as opposed to mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay that work only on select smartphone models from those companies.
Walmart does not support any third-party, NFC-based mobile wallets at this point.
Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of services for Walmart, said the company designed Walmart Pay in a way that allows for the integration of other mobile wallets in the future.
At the moment, no one is sure what Walmart Pay means for the Merchant Customer Exchange.
Walmart, along with Best Buy and Target, introduced MCX in 2012 in an attempt to create a retailer-centered mobile-payment system focused on loyalty and rewards. The consortium later introduced the CurrentC mobile app after multiple setbacks and even now the system remains in pilot mode in Columbus, Ohio.
Chase gave MCX a lifeline in October when the bank announced Chase Pay, with the consortium as a premier partner in the new system.
Walmart said Wednesday it remains committed to MCX, but did not have any updates on a CurrentC national rollout.
About Will Hernandez
Will Hernandez has 14 years of experience ranging from newspapers to wire services and trade publications. Before becoming Editor of MobilePaymentsToday.com, he spent two years as the content manager for PaymentsJournal.com, a leading payments industry news aggregator and information hub published by Mercator Advisory Group. Will spent four years covering the payments industry as an associate editor for multiple publications in SourceMedia's Payments Group based in Chicago.
