Free App Aims to Speed Up Checkout at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will start letting shoppers in its stores pay with their smartphone using the company’s mobile app, a move that could challenge other mobile- payment methods such as Apple Pay and the Merchant Customer Exchange.

“We made a strategic decision to design Walmart Pay to work with nearly any smartphone and accept nearly any payment type”, says Mr. Daniel Eckert, VP of services. Upon checkout, buyers select Walmart Pay on the store’s app and take a picture of the QR code displayed at the terminal. This suggests that other mobile payment services, such as Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay, could also be integrated down the road. The mobile payment service should show up as an option in the app. When you get to the register, just pick Walmart Pay and activate the camera.

Walmart is among a handful of retailers that have refused to support Apple Pay since its USA launch in October 2014.

Walmart commenced rolling out the Walmart Pay on Thursday, Dec. 10, initially in chosen stores in Bentonville, Arkansas. “We believe Walmart pay will make the ease of mobile payment as reality for millions of Americans while improving the checkout experience for our customers”. No, you can’t use Walmart Pay at Starbucks. The retail giant launched Walmart Pay service, which it expects to roll out across the United States by the middle of 2016. This is the first time a retailer, who has offered this type of mobile payment solution, according to Walmart.

“The Walmart app was built to make shopping faster and easier”, Neil Ashe, president and CEO of Walmart global eCommerce, said in a statement. Acknowledging the crowded landscape, Eckert said Walmart Pay is designed in a way to work with other solutions and perhaps accelerate what to date has been a tepid pace of consumer adoption. For now, it looks like folks hoping to use Android Pay and Apple Pay at Walmart will be out of luck.

The company said Walmart Pay was developed independently, but it continues to remain associated with CurrentC as a possible mobile wallet addition to Walmart Pay.

Once the associate scans all items, the transaction will be complete.

The number of tap-capable mobile payment machines in the United States is expected to surpass 1.5 million this year.