What are my options for mobile pay?

Wal-Mart will debut the new feature in all of its 4,500-plus USA stores in the first half of 2016.

In this photo taken Friday, Oct. 17, 2014, Eddy Cue, Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, demonstrates the new Apple Pay mobile payment system at a Whole Foods store in Cupertino, Calif. Everyone from Apple to Starbucks has introduced their own mobile payment system as smartphones have grown in popularity. Walmart Pay will be available on devices using Apple’s iOS or Alphabet’s Android operating system and allows payments with any major credit, debit, pre-paid or Walmart gift cards, the company said.

Unlike other tech giants, Google indulged into making a peer-to-peer payment system for efficient use, considering the launched Android Pay.

A version of this article appears in print on December 14, 2015 of The Himalayan Times.

Wal-Mart’s latest announcement is another step to accelerate its online business, to make shopping easier and faster and to compete with online leader Amazon.com, Inc.

“When Apple released Apple Pay, the idea was that we’re now moving forward with N.F.C., and that’s the way all mobile payments will be transacted”, said James Wester, a global payments expert at IDC Financial Insights.

A Chase spokeswoman stressed that “customers will be able to use Chase Pay as a standalone app, within CurrentC, or within individual merchant apps”. While Android Pay is mainly exclusive to Android phones and Samsung Pay and LG Pay are exclusive to Samsung and LG phones, respectively, Walmart Pay is available for nearly everyone. Apple Pay from Apple, Inc. For the Wal-Mart system, shoppers open up the app and then they activate the camera function to scan a QR code on the reader. Almost half of Walmart’s online orders over Thanksgiving weekend came from mobile devices, and customers in stores used the app at almost twice the rate they did during the same period previous year, Walmart executives said. “CurrentC” has been in the works for three years but still hasn’t been rolled out to consumers, and now Wal-Mart is going it alone.

After months of escalating rumors, Walmart finally announced the arrival of its new payments service.

Kovitz Investment Group boosted its stake in shares of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Payments industry insider Tom Noyes, who runs a blog that is nearly always spot on, reports that Chase has already struck a one-off deal for Walmart to accept Chase Pay, only to have Walmart turn around and slyly launch its own service. “This is an exciting time in the changing mobile pay space”, said Kagan.

An e-receipt is sent to the app.

All of these services offer security benefits: They store and transmit an alternate card number that’s generated by the card issuer. The merchant never gets the real card number, so it remains safe even if the store’s system gets hacked.

Walmart Pay will be introduced in select stores beginning this month, according to Wal-Mart. That’s expected to surpass 1.5 million this year.