Walmart recently entered the mobile payments race with the introduction of its own Android and iOS mobile payment app, Walmart Pay. This announcement made Walmart the first major retailer to launch its own payment service.
Unlike Apple Pay or Google Wallet, Walmart’s mobile payment app will use Quick Reference (QR) technology rather than near-field communication (NFC). The retail giant is part of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), the big business-backed company promoting a retailer-supported mobile payment system called CurrentC. So far, CurrentC has failed to take off, since some large retail backers are now accepting Apply Pay in their stores.
With Walmart Pay, the retailer is essentially adding payment technology to its current mobile app which has a reported 22 million active users. The app ranks among the top three retail apps in the Google and Apple app stores. The payment feature is being built into the existing app, so customers can shop with it as well as pay with it.
WHAT IT MEANS:
As mobile payment technology improves and becomes more widely adopted, Forrester expects mobile payments to account for $142 billion in sales by 2019. Walmart likely won’t be the only major retailer hoping to get a piece of that $142 billion pie.