Walmart has expanded its mobile payments solution, Walmart Pay, to fifteen additional states in the U.S. The new states are: Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia.
They payments solution, built into Walmart’s app for iOS and Android devices, is based on a QR code checkout process which entails opening the app, selecting the “Walmart Pay” option, using the camera to take a photo of the code displayed at the checkout stand, and then waiting for the transaction to be completed, when an electronic receipt is sent to the app. (WHEW!) Walmart Pay works with any major credit or debit card, prepaid card, or Walmart gift card.
Rollout to be Complete by Year’s End
The retailer first rolled out Walmart Pay to locations in Arkansas and Texas last month. The rollout to fifteen more states, accounting for around 1,500 more stores, indicates Walmart is in it for the long haul, and won’t be kneeling to Zod, (Apple Pay) any time soon. Walmart is expected to complete a nationwide rollout of the service by the end of 2016.
The company says “mostly any card” can be linked to the service as a payment method. Walmart was one of a number of retailers, including Best Buy and Target, who opted not to climb on the Apple Pay train when it left the station in 2014. They instead backed Current C, an alternate payments service. Best Buy has since seen the error of its ways and is now accepting Apple Pay, while Target is now working on its own homegrown solution, much like Walmart did.
The Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium has since announced it is indefinitely postponing the wide release of the CurrentC payments service, and has even shut down a small beta test of the service.
