Neil Ashe, president and CEO of Walmart Global eCommerce said in the announcement, “The timing couldn’t be better to share this news, given what we saw over the holiday weekend”.
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Near-field communication (NFC) payment services such as Apple Pay require customers to place their phones near a store’s NFC-enabled payment terminal and scan their fingerprint to make a payment.
The Walmart Pay system will make use of QR codes that will be displayed at the register during check out, as reported by Wired.
In an announcement today, Walmart unveiled its new mobile payment solution.
Payment providers have stated the potential for quick and seamless payment processes that can be offered by mobile, for some time, and retailers are now seeing the benefits come to fruition.
Twenty-two shoppers now use the Walmart app that is available for both iOS and Android, and has features that include checking in to pick up an online order at a Walmart store, refilling pharmacy prescriptions and finding an item’s store location. “We made a strategic decision to design Walmart Pay to work with nearly any smartphone and accept nearly any payment type-even allowing for the integration of other mobile wallets in the future”. It also comes several months after Google launched the Android Pay mobile wallet app and Samsung debuted Samsung Pay.
The mobile payment feature will be introduced in select stores beginning this month, with a nationwide launch to be complete by the first half of next year. Walmart launching its own app is essentially a vote of no confidence in CurrentC, which has big backers (Target, Kohl’s, Rite Aid), but has been plagued by delays, a data breach, and withering beta reviews from customers. At the register, they open up the app and then they activate the camera function to scan a QR code on the reader. Customers can put the phone away and an e-receipt application will be sent to the app. Some may only work with one and some will work with many.
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JPMorgan Chase, meanwhile, is working on its own system for mobile payments. “Retailers must decide which technology to implement”. That’s expected to surpass 1.5 million this year. Apple also is conducting a pilot program with Starbucks, with a broader rollout next year, while KFC will launch next spring.
