Wal-Mart enters mobile payment with launch of Walmart Pay

You can easily add any major credit, debit or prepaid card, as well as Walmart gift cards, to the app. Too bad using it requires so many steps. Then you need to select Walmart Pay and scan the QR code that is displayed at the checkout terminal and then wait until the checkout staff member is finished to make a final payment through the app.

Walmart is looking to launch its own payment feature called “Walmart Pay”, an app that will let customers pay for shopping at Walmart using their phones, reports Reuters.

“We needed a solution that offered mobile payment access to as many of our customers as possible”, said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of services for Walmart U.S.

Done: Associate scans and bags the items… and it’s done. “Walmart Pay is the latest example – and a powerful addition – of how we are transforming the shopping experience by seamlessly connecting online, mobile and stores for the 140m customers who shop with us weekly”.

Mobile payments have been proposed for years, but Apple Pay really got things going last year when it came to paying for items with mobile devices. Apple Pay, however, is still locked out at Walmart and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change. For now, it looks like folks hoping to use Android Pay and Apple Pay at Walmart will be out of luck. Instead, it built its own system, which it said works with any iOS or Android device that can support the Walmart app and at any checkout lane, including self-service checkout.

Walmart is jumping into the mobile payments business, the first USA retailer to tackle the notion of consumers using their smartphones as mobile wallets.

Though Walmart Pay also uses QR codes, a Walmart representative tells Mashable its payments technology was developed by the company independently. The retailer claims that its application is already one of the top-three retail apps on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, and has 22 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users) overall.

On Thursday, selected Wal-Mart stores in the USA will witness Walmart Pay go live. Walmart will send you an e-receipt when you’re all done.

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