Walmart Announces Apple Pay Competitor ‘Walmart Pay’ for iOS

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. The brilliance of Walmart Pay is that it supports almost all credit and debit cards, something competing services don’t offer.

The Wal-Mart app is already one of the most widely used retailer apps among Google Android and Apple iOS users.

“We are creating a seamless shopping experience that includes payment”, Neil Ashe, president and CEO of Wal-Mart’s global eCommerce, told reporters.

Starting this month, the new feature will be available in select Walmart stores with a nationwide launch planned to be completed within the first half of 2016. Walmart Pay is a free app and it comes integrated with the retailer’s mobile app. Republication or redistribution of content provided by EconoTimes is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of EconoTimes, except for personal and non-commercial use.

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.

Walmart doesn’t now accept any type of mobile wallet, such as Apple Pay or Samsung Pay.

Walmart isn’t willing to give up control of its point-of-sale payments to tech giants like Apple, Samsung and Google.

“Checkout using Walmart Pay happens in three easy steps – visit any register, open the Walmart app and choose Walmart Pay”, Walmart says.

“It’s important to note that Walmart Pay is not about improving payment, just for payments sake”, said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of Walmart. Called Walmart Pay, the service will launch next year as a feature in Walmart’s existing smartphone app. Despite all that, though, Walmart had made a decision to launch its own mobile payment offering instead. Presently, shoppers can now check in when they head over to a store to send a signal to staff that they are there to pick up the items they purchased online. An eReceipt will be sent to the app and can be viewed at any time.