Walmart Pay hits major milestone

The Walmart Pay mobile digital payment service only began formal rollout in May 2016, but has already reached an impressive goal.



Initially announced in December 2015, Walmart Pay is now available of all of Walmart’s more than 4,600 U.S. stores. Available through the Walmart app for iOS and Android devices, Walmart Pay works at all checkout lanes, and with any credit, debit, pre-paid or Walmart gift card.



During a July 6 media conference call, Daniel Eckert, senior VP of services for Walmart U.S., cited a number of statistics about Walmart Pay’s rapid growth and positive customer response. These included a 45% increase in Walmart Pay transactions in the last week. In addition, Eckert said three out of four customers have given Walmart Pay a five-star rating in the Walmart app and 88% of Walmart Pay transactions come from repeat users.



Eckert also said Walmart Pay is designed with the convenience of the customer.



“Walmart Pay is not a payment app for payment’s sake,” he said. “It’s a way to build a digital relationship with the customer we use to improve the shopping experience. The combination of assets that go into Walmart Pay make checkout more convenient, faster and fun. It makes the experience not a chore, but a delight.”



During the call, Eckert answered questions from media members regarding a number of other issues relating to Walmart Pay and to mobile payment in general. Eckert’s comments on different topics included:



On ways Walmart might use customer data to improve the Walmart Pay customer experience:



“We could build a ‘smart list’ for customers where it’s more about them deleting items than having to add items. It would take friction out of the shopping experience.”



On the possible analysis of individual customer shopping data:

“On a macro level, we take the respect for privacy our customers expect from us very seriously. In the aggregate, we always analyze customer data for metrics like sell-throughs, and will continue to do so irrespective of demographic or psychographic data.”



On integrating Walmart Pay with other leading mobile wallet apps:

“It’s too soon to say, but there are ongoing confidential discussions with several major third-party applications.”



Eckert also said Walmart currently has no plans to integrate NFC support into its stores or offer loyalty rewards to Walmart Pay users. Walmart does not yet know if the digital payment service is boosting membership for its shopping app, but will analyze data as it becomes available.