It looks like Walmart wants to take on the big guns in the mobile payment industry: Apple Pay and Android Pay. The company is reportedly in talks to bring a number of other mobile payment services to the Walmart app in a bid to beef up the number of ways customers can pay for items.
Last week, Walmart announced that it would be adding JPMorgan Chase’s Chase Pay to the app, so adding more payment options would simply expand on what the app already offers. The company also currently lets users pay using PayPal on the Walmart website.
According to a report from Reuters, U.S. mobile payments accounted for a hefty $67 billion in 2015, a figure that’s sure to increase as mobile payments become more popular. They’re expected to grow to $83 billion this year, which represents a cool 24 percent of all purchases made using smartphones.
Still, there’s a long way to go before mobile payment services are truly popular. That largely has to do with the fact that there’s a lot of technology that has to be implemented before users can pay for things all over the nation — until then, having to juggle multiple ways to pay for things can be a little frustrating.
Walmart Pay was launched in 2015, and works a little differently than other payment services. Instead of using NFC, or near field communications, the Walmart app uses the device’s camera to scan a barcode. An electronic receipt is then sent to the app. It’s not known exactly how many people use Walmart Pay, but it’s unlikely the service even comes close to the likes of Apple Pay and Android Pay. Still, if the company’s talks with other payment services are successful, more people could sign up since they’ll have more options in using the service.
