Customers at US retail giant Walmart will soon be able to pay for purchases by scanning a QR code at the point of sale using Walmart Pay, the retailer’s own mobile payment service. Walmart Pay will be integrated into the Walmart app and introduced in selected stores this month, with a nationwide launch expected in the first half of next year.

The announcement follows Walmart’s participation in a pilot test of CurrentC — the QR code-based mobile payment service owned by retailer-led consortium MCX, of which Walmart is a member. It is unclear how the two services will coincide, but Walmart Pay will allow for the “integration of other mobile wallets in the future”, according to the company’s senior vice president of services Daniel Eckert.

“The simplicity and ease of Walmart Pay comes not only from how it works, but also in how it’s been built,” Eckert says. “We made a strategic decision to design Walmart Pay to work with almost any smartphone and accept almost any payment type — even allowing for the integration of other mobile wallets in the future.”

Easy steps

“Checkout using Walmart Pay happens in three easy steps — visit any register, open the Walmart app and choose Walmart Pay,” Walmart says. “Activate the camera. At any time during checkout, simply scan the code displayed at the register. Walmart Pay is now connected. The associate scans and bags the items and it’s done. An e-receipt will be sent to the app and can be viewed at any time.

“Walmart Pay is like no other mobile payments solution available today. With this launch, Walmart becomes the only retailer to offer its own payment solution that works with any iOS or Android device, at any checkout lane, and with any major credit, debit, prepaid or Walmart gift card — all through the Walmart mobile app.”

“Twenty two million customers actively use the Walmart app each month,” the retailer adds. “The Walmart app enhances the shopping experience in Walmart stores with features including checking in to pick up and online order at a Walmart store, refilling pharmacy prescriptions and finding an item’s store location.”

A video shows how the service will work:

“The Walmart app was built to make shopping faster and easier,” says Neil Ashe, president and CEO of Walmart global ecommerce. “Walmart Pay is the latest example — and a powerful addition — of how we are transforming the shopping experience by seamlessly connecting online, mobile and stores for the 140 million customers who shop with us weekly.”

MCX unveiled the CurrentC brand in September 2014 and added offers and discounts to the service in August 2015. It unveiled plans for an initial pilot in the same month. The consortium also teamed up with JP Morgan Chase to allow the Chase Pay service to be accepted by all members of MCX in October 2015.

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