Walmart launches mobile payment app

It was only a matter of time before America's hypermarket multinational, Walmart, would offer its customers the latest mobile payment technology.

The world’s largest retailer is adding a feature to its existing mobile app allowing consumers to pay at the register with any payment information stored in their Walmart.com account, including gift cards, debit cards or credit cards.

Nearly 22 million people use the Walmart app every month, and Walmart plans to release the payment capability to its 4,600 stores in the first half of next year.

Consumers will be able to pay by generating a QR code using its app that can be be scanned by the retailer. Other mobile payment options, such as Apple Pay, have been largely shunned by Walmart, as it believes this will be a more widely accepted option because it can be used via the existing Walmart app.

Walmart has been slow to adopt technology that allows shoppers to pay with phones in stores, largely because not many customers are rushing to move away from credit and debit cards.

The retailer decided to build its own payment system because the other options either work only on particular smartphones or only allow users to pay with a select group of credit or debit cards.

Walmart US senior vice president, services, Daniel Eckert, said: “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. The result is an innovation that will make the ease of mobile payments a reality for millions of Americans.”