Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has announced that it has launched its mobile payment app known as Walmart Pay in more than 4,600 of its stores throughout the US.
The Walmart Pay app made its debut in December 2015 as a free mobile payment service which the retail giant launched as a service to boost its business. The app is supported by most major credit cards. The mobile payment app also supports Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google devices as well as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). The app does not support Near Field Communications (NFC). Users, therefore, have to initiate the Walmart Pay app so that they can complete their payment.
The mobile payment app is a tool that the company plans to use to compete against other retail giants such as Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY). The firm has a particular interest in boosting sales in its online stores. Walmart believes that the app will attract more customers to its stores especially since it does not charge any fee for payment transactions.
Walmart has already registered 24 million users on the app and the company claims that the transaction rate in the app has increased by 45% over one week. The app also places the firm in a similar path as Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) to tap into mobile payments. Walmart is betting big with the app and plans to use it to take on companies such as Apple and others who are leading in the developing mobile payment industry.
The retail giant’s main intention with the app is to offer better customer experience in its stores to reduce the checkout delays and to attract more customers to its website. The company also claims that the app does not retain customer information and that the payment app is incorporated into the Walmart app. Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of the company, stated that Walmart is trying to create more intrinsic relationships with its customers.