Walmart Entering the Mobile Payments Arena

It essentially combines a checkout payment system with app functionality, which allows customers to also locate items in-store or pick up items they have reserved. The retailer is hoping that its customers will embrace the mobile payment system more than consumers have flocked to Apple Pay or Android Pay, both of which have found it hard to persuade shoppers to use the payment apps.

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.

Wal-Mart has moved into this field as Apple’s one-year-old tap-and-pay system is being extended to different vendors like Best Buy and KFC. This festive season, Wal-Mart included new features like permitting online customers to check in once they got to the parking area so they could have their online requests prepared for pickup.

Walmart Pay comes built into the already popular Walmart app for Android and iOS.

Although Apple now allows users to store their loyalty cards in the Apple Wallet app, Apple Pay does not have a “strong value proposition” as it can not include retailers’ loyalty programs, research firm Gartner Inc analyst Penny Gillespie said.

Reuters reports that Walmart Pay is being introduced in select stores today and will be launched nationally during the first half of 2016. A pilot test is being conducted in Columbus, Ohio, and it involves Wal-Mart and 10 other retailers. And those customers accustomed to using the app can now use it to pay with Walmart Pay. A battle royal could be shaping up between Apple and Wal-Mart as the retail giant plans to roll out its own mobile payment system.

“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. He did not name the companies. Customers can put the phone away and an e-receipt application will be sent to the app. Samsung goes further in offering a backup: The phone can mimic the old-school magnetic signals produced by card swipes and work with most existing equipment. But Chase Pay won’t use NFC when it debuts next year. “Retailers must decide which technology to implement”.

Current C will be launched in 4,600 stores in the US next year.