Walmart Pay, new technology that allows customers to purchase items using their smartphones, launched Thursday in stores near the retailer's headquarters in Arkansas.
According to Tech Times, Walmart Pay will compete with other mobile payment systems like Apple Pay and Google Wallet, and makes Walmart "the first retailer to have its very own mobile payments solution which works on Android and iOS handsets."
Instead of launching a new app, Walmart representatives explained that the retailer has embedded the mobile payment system into its existing smartphone app.
"We’re making it as simple to pay in the store as it is to pay online," said Neil Ashe, Walmart's CEO of global e-commerce,
USA Today reported.
"We needed a solution that offered mobile payment access to as many of our customers as possible," said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of services for Walmart U.S.
Mobile continues to be a focus for retailers of every stripe, and Walmart said that nearly half of its online orders over Thanksgiving weekend came from people shopping on their handheld devices. So far in 2015, the app has 22 million active users.
The new system allows customers to connect their existing debit and credit cards, and use their phone instead of their plastic card when they reach the checkout register.
The system also allows customers to upload gift cards, as well as store digital copies of their receipts.
Executives said that they plan to roll the technology out to the rest of their stores in the first half of 2016.
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