Walmart Pay undergoes big growth spurt

Walmart did not reach its stated goal of rolling out the Walmart Pay digital payment service to every store by the end of June, but it certainly made a lot of headway.



During the week of June 27, the discount giant rolled out Walmart Pay at close to 1,300 stores in 19 new states – Arizona, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Ohio, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont. With these additions, Walmart now offers Walmart Pay at about 3,700 stores in 37 states and Washington, D.C.



The retailer initially announced the digital wallet service, which works through the Walmart mobile shopping app, in December 2015. Formal rollout started in Texas and Arkansas in May 2015.



The service works by customers selecting the Walmart Pay option on the retailer’s mobile app at checkout and activating their smartphone camera. They then scan the code displayed at the register to connect Walmart Pay. When the transaction is complete, an e-receipt is sent to the app, which the customer can view at any time.



Walmart has stated it will still accept other forms of mobile and digital payment in its stores besides Walmart Pay. However, it is likely to increase downloads and utilization of the retailer’s mobile app. With 22 million active app users, Walmart Pay has a huge built-in potential consumer base.



In addition, Walmart’s decision to launch its own digital payment service was likely a major contributor to the recent demise of the retailer-backed CurrentC mobile payment app. Walmart had been a member of the Merchant Commerce Exchange (MCX), which supported CurrentC.



Starbucks has long offered its own mobile payment app and Target is reportedly developing a proprietary mobile payment feature. These types of retailer-specific offerings will cut somewhat into the revenues of general mobile payment platforms like Apple Pay, Android Pay. However, there are a finite number of payment apps consumers are willing to download, meaning only the largest Tier I retailers will have success with them.