Tag: walmart mobile payments

Walmart mobile payments roll out in 19 new states.

Walmart Pay is available in approximately 3,700 of its stores across the United States. Although it failed to reach its initial goal of launching the payment service to every store by the end of June, it added close to 1,300 stores in 19 new states throughout last week. Now, the total number of states where the mobile payments service is available has reached 37 and also includes Washington D.C., reported Chain Store Age.

The digital wallet service rollout started back in May 2016.

The service was officially announced by the monster retailer back in December of 2015. Texas and Arkansas were the first states to receive the service. Walmart’s payment solution – which works via the retailer’s mobile shopping app – launched at 600 stores across both states back in May.

The 19 new states where Walmart Pay is now live include: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Washington, Ohio , Idaho, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island.

Walmart Pay has a massive built-in potential customer base.

Currently, Walmart’s mobile app has 22 million active users. With such a huge consumer base, Walmart Pay has plenty of potential for success.

The mobile payments service from Walmart is easy to use and is one of the options on the retailer’s mobile app. Consumer with the app can choose the payment option at checkout, which activates their smartphone camera. With their camera they scan the code displayed at the register. The scanned code will connect them to Walmart Pay. Once the transaction is complete, an e-recipe is sent to the app. Customer can view this e-receipt whenever they want.

In addition to their own digital wallet service, the American multinational retail corporation also intends to accept other forms of digital and mobile payments within its stores.

While certainly not the first to launch it s own mobile payments solution, Walmart’s decision to rollout Walmart Pay could prove advantageous for the company. Although consumers aren’t likely to obtain many merchant-specific payment apps, it is the largest Tier I retailers – like Walmart – that have the highest potential to experience the most success with these services.

Retailer aims to preserve the convenience and security of mobile shopping

Wal-Mart has been experimenting with mobile payments for some time now and the company is beginning to focus more of its efforts on the mobile space. According to Charles Holley, Chief Financial Officer of Wal-Mart, convenience has become one of the most important aspects of mobile commerce, and ensuring that this convenience remains intact as mobile payments become more prominent is becoming a priority. Security and eliminating the costs associated with mobile payments is also becoming important.

Retail is changing to become more mobile-centric

The retail space is beginning to shift and more consumers are beginning to rely on their mobile devices to shop for and purchase products. Finding ways to make the mobile shopping experience enjoyable is important, but Wal-Mart is not yet sure what role mobile payments will play in its overarching business. This may involve exploring new payment options in order to ensure that the company remains on the cutting edge of mobile commerce.

CurrentC may not be the solution that retailers need for the mobile space

Wal-Mart is currently part of the Merchant Consumer Exchange, a consortium of retailers that has its own mobile payments system called CurrentC. The system makes use of QR codes in order to process mobile transactions and boasts of a “secure cloud-hosted network,” which provides extra security for those making payments. CurrentC is currently in a private testing phase and the Merchant Consumer Exchange is beginning to feel pressure to release a comprehensive mobile payments solution in order to compete with other options that are available.

Without an effective solution, retailers may opt to use other mobile payments platforms not developed by the Merchant Consumer Exchange

If such a solution does not come soon, Wal-Mart and other retailers may opt to use other mobile payments platforms, such as Apple Pay. Those involved in the Merchant Consumer Exchange cannot use other payment solutions at this time, which has limited their ability to engage mobile consumers in effective ways. With mobile shopping growing in prominence, this may no longer be a sustainable practice.