Wal-Mart rolls out smartphone payments for in-store shoppers

Customers can store any payment method – credit card, debit card, prepaid card or gift card – in the Walmart Pay function within the Walmart app. At checkout, users open the Walmart app, select Walmart Pay and use their camera to scan a QR code on the card reader.

The superstore is rolling out Walmart Pay, the first payment system introduced by a US retailer that can be used on both Apple and Android smartphones.

Starting this month, customers will be able to use the Wal-Mart Pay app in some retail stores across the nation, but all retail stores will be able to utilize it by mid-2016.

“The simplicity and ease of Walmart Pay comes not only from how it works, but also in how it’s been built”, said services senior VP Daniel Eckert.

“We’re really working hard to create a seamless shopping experience at Walmart”, Neil Ashe, president and CEO of Walmart global ecommerce, told reporters on Wednesday.

Walmart’s payment system is expected to launch across the United States next year.

MCX, the retailer consortium formed to develop a competitor to Apple Pay, lost its lead partner today when Walmart announced its own system, Walmart Pay, which works in concert with the Walmart app along with Savings Catcher.

The goal with Walmart Pay is to improve customer checkout and dramatically expand mobile payment access.

Apple and others have faced some challenges to change shopper behaviors who are accustomed to just taking out their wallets to pay.

The US largest retailer informed that around 22 million active users use the Walmart app each month. The Walmart app now offers such features as checking in to pick up an online order at a Walmart store, refilling pharmacy prescriptions and finding an item’s store location. An electronic receipt will automatically be sent to the Walmart app.

With Wal-Mart’s system, a shopper downloads the Wal-Mart app at the cash register and then choose Wal-Mart Pay. Apple Pay, which has been available since October 2014, lets Apple users make purchases and payments using their late-model iPhones, iPads or Apple Watch devices. This makes it the first retailer to have its very own mobile payments solution which works on Android and iOS handsets.