Walmart announces Walmart Pay for QR code-based mobile payments

The service works with any major credit, debit or pre-paid card, as well as Walmart gift cards, and allows in-store customers to check out electronically by scanning a code at the register with their smart phones.

Wal-Mart said it will become the first retailer to launch its own mobile payment system that works with iPhone or Android devices.

The new feature works in a select number of stores this week and will go nationwide in the first half of next year, making it available to the 22 million people who use the Walmart app each month.

Wal-Mart will debut Walmart Pay, the retailer’s new mobile payment system, and will battle Samsung, Google and Apple in the crowded mobile pay market.

American retail giant Walmart is the latest business to launch its own mobile payments push, allowing retails to pay by mobile, and use mobile wallets. The Currrent C payment system that MCX developed is in an active pilot with 12 other retailers in Columbus, Ohio, and Wal-Mart “continues to be committed to MCX”, Eckert said.

The app provides an improved shopping experience for its customers, as it offers features such as check in to collect online order at Walmart store, refill pharmacy prescriptions, and locate specific items within the store.

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

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

For those of you that had been hoping for Walmart to start supporting Apple Pay, then there has been a bit of a setback.

At the checkout, the customer opens the Wal-Mart app on her phone and selects Wal-Mart Pay. It will also be interesting to see if Walmart Pay will be adopted by any other retailers or if it will remain a single retailer payment solution.

“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 Pay is now connected. At the end of the transaction, the app generates an eReceipt. Once it’s connected, the items are tallied and payment is complete.