Walmart Joins Mobile Payment Game With Walmart Pay

Walmart Pay is a free app and it comes integrated with the retailer’s mobile app.

Wal-Mart’s new mobile payment systems works this way: Shoppers download the Walmart app at the cash register and then choose Wal-Mart Pay. The camera will activate, and you’ll scan the code displayed at the register.

“We’ve even designed (Walmart Pay) to allow for the integration of other mobile wallets in the future as these capabilities mature in the marketplace”, Eckert said. Note that the app will only work at Walmart stores, although the company could open up the platform for other merchants as well. An electronic receipt is sent to the app.

Walmart commenced rolling out the Walmart Pay on Thursday, Dec. 10, initially in chosen stores in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The service will be introduced this month in some select stores.

Millions of the company’s customers used their smartphones for shopping in the last holiday weekend and almost half of online customers used their mobile devices, said Neil Ashe, president and CEO of Walmart Global eCommerce.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WAL-MART STORES, INC.:WMT) sees over 22 million people make use of its Android and iOS apps every month, the retailer reports. For now, it looks like folks hoping to use Android Pay and Apple Pay at Walmart will be out of luck.

Wal-Mart expects the full roll-out of Wal-Mart Pay will be completed by mid-2016.

To use the system, shoppers will have to download the app and add in payment information. As a result, retail companies, most of which operate on extremely tight margins, want to find a way that will let them process payments directly from checking accounts or their own store credit cards.

While it bears a name similar to the mobile payment systems from Google and Apple, Walmart’s service doesn’t use the near-field communication (NFC) wireless technology found in the other two mobile wallets.

Smartphone payments at retailers are expected to surge to $118 billion by 2018, according to market researcher eMarketer, an increase of more than 3,000 percent from the $3.5 billion tallied previous year. At the end of the transaction, the app generates an eReceipt.