Walmart Announces Apple Pay Competitor 'Walmart Pay' for iOS

[nunes013]

It's simple really. Money. Why pay apple their.... 30% ????.... or whatever it is to accept applepay when they can work a deal with visa/mastercard for lower rates using their own app.
I still say Starbucks did it the right way. They promoted their gift cards as not only gift cards, but cards that ANYONE could use.... and people do it. So instead of paying a credit card fee on every transaction, they only pay on the initial loads.

However and Im just wondering because I don't know logistics, is it really cheaper by the time you pay the rate to the credit card company, pay to upkeep the reader that scans the QR code, and pay the people to upkeep the app and all that? I feel like if it is cheaper, it won't be much cheaper. And I do like Starbucks implementation. But on a consumer level, Id rather have everything in one source. Not a Starbucks pay thing, Wal-Mart pay, Chase pay etc. I don't want 10 apps just for paying, I want one. But I'm sure it will appeal to people who shop there frequently. I guess I don't shop there enough to consider it.

 

[aristobrat]

well, there is pretty steep limit, you can pay only small amount without credentials.. and, truly, is there anybody who does not notice when his card is lost? I can block card in a seccond with bank smart app... so, I dont take safety as a reason

Right, you can block the card in a second, and then what? You have to wait for the bank to reissue/mail you a replacement card. "10 days max?" ...because that's convenient for anyone, regardless of the cost to you. (there is a cost for that service, even if you aren't the one paying for it directly)

With the mobile wallets, should a token become compromised, the token gets revoked and you get a new token. Without waiting.

 

[DaveWil]

Just sec, I need to go to Walmart and buy a 10 foot pole to show you want I won't touch their payment app with.

 

[JDHiro]

One thing Walmart is doing right is tying digital receipts into the experience.

One of the things that rankles me most about Apple Pay is that I swipe my phone to pay - and then somebody hands me a piece of paper that I have to keep track of. I'd love to see digital receipts go straight into the phone.

 

[jonnyb098]

This will surely fail....then they'll have to adopt Apple pay.....why the hell are they prolonging the pain. Not that I care. I've stepped into Walmart about 5 times in my entire life, thankfully.

 

[BryanLyle]

Sorry Walmart... Na ga do.

 

[zaphon]

That is if the customers and cashier are up for chatting with someone who's holding up the line to use 1970's "technology.'

I got stuck behind someone doing this the other day at Wal-Mart. The lady was sitting there jumping through all the hoops of writing a check, with her checkbook right there next to her Debit card. She could see I was getting visibly pissed off the longer this took (it was 5+ minutes), so she turned to me and says "I'm old school." I lost it, responding with "No you're POOR. You have a debit card right there, you could easily have paid with it, but let's be honest, you're writing a check because you don't have enough money in your account to buy what you are, and you're hoping that the check will not clear before you do get money." Needless to say the next few minutes were awkward, and probably won't be back.

Oh and Wal-Mart hasn't figured out Chip and Pin either. I wanted to pay with my card, they told me to swipe, my card has chip and pin, so it says insert card. I do and it starts to process, then the lady reaches around, rips the card out of the reader (she about snapped my card in half), and asks for my ID. I show her my ID and then she resets it all and we go through the process again. Seriously, they make it so hard to pay it's stupid.

 

[jonnyb098]

The Walmart C-Suite idiot who approved this dead on arrival payment solution probably makes millions a year and about to collect a fat year end bonus. He'll be canned next year when this thing goes down in flames. You heard it here first ladies and gentlemen! haha

Sadly, thats the business world in America. Make crummy decisions and get paid millions.

 

[gimikinc]

Really? Really Walmart? I'm not trusting you with my data, and are you really going to compete? Come on...

Elephant Restaurant and Bar was recently hacked in the US, so how is Walmart a greater risk? Target, Home Depot, etc. also had breaches......

 

[spazzcat]

It's simple really. Money. Why pay apple their.... 30% ????.... or whatever it is to accept applepay when they can work a deal with visa/mastercard for lower rates using their own app.
I still say Starbucks did it the right way. They promoted their gift cards as not only gift cards, but cards that ANYONE could use.... and people do it. So instead of paying a credit card fee on every transaction, they only pay on the initial loads.

Apple pay fee is no where near 30%....

 

[ericgtr12]

Who would want the ability to put your iPhone near the NFC reader, have it read your fingerprint and complete the transaction in 2 seconds when you can instead look for the app, open it, invoke the camera, take a picture of the QR code & then confirm? You Apple people are just elitists!

 

[spazzcat]

The fact is that companies like Walmart saw how successful Starbucks was with their own similar (barcode-based) app and figure, "why not us too?" Having your customers use your own app to pay for purchases means that you still get to keep all the analytics/user tracking that you've been getting from people swiping their cards while possibly making for a faster checkout experience, basically a win-win. Like I've been saying since the whole CurrentC thing became a thing, it was never about the swipe fees at all.

On the other hand, I've been seeing some Walmart locations begin to show up on MasterCard's site. Attached is for the LA area but random ZIP codes around the country cause at least a few Walmart locations to appear. Perhaps they're going to enable NFC soon as well?

The funny thing is, I am tired of SB app and having to preload my card. I find myself going there less and less. Just move over to Apple pay already SB...

 

[macfacts]

... I don't know diddly about their customer demographic data, but I think it's safe to say a significant portion of them don't have the latest NFC equipped devices. QR codes can be read from pretty much any phone. For their business case, it seems smart.

Walmart sells iphones, so iPhone users do shop at Walmart. The problem isn't Android phones having nfc or not. The problem is Apple isn't letting anyone use the nfc in 3rd party apps, that's why those qr codes are used. Lowest common denominator = ios. This is an example of a cross platform app being dumbed down because of ios.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Walmart requires you insert the chip which takes ages. So Walmart pay might take off there.

It's WAY more simple(r) to just pull out my debit card and swipe and sign than to do all those steps they require…

 

[zaphon]

The funny thing is, I am tired of SB app and having to preload my card. I find myself going there less and less. Just move over to Apple pay already SB...

I use Apple Pay to reload it, at least that's more convenient. I wouldn't use the app at all if I didn't get a free one after every 12th..

 

[macnewbie91]

I got stuck behind someone doing this the other day at Wal-Mart. The lady was sitting there jumping through all the hoops of writing a check, with her checkbook right there next to her Debit card. She could see I was getting visibly pissed off the longer this took (it was 5+ minutes), so she turned to me and says "I'm old school." I lost it, responding with "No you're POOR. You have a debit card right there, you could easily have paid with it, but let's be honest, you're writing a check because you don't have enough money in your account to buy what you are, and you're hoping that the check will not clear before you do get money." Needless to say the next few minutes were awkward, and probably won't be back.

Oh and Wal-Mart hasn't figured out Chip and Pin either. I wanted to pay with my card, they told me to swipe, my card has chip and pin, so it says insert card. I do and it starts to process, then the lady reaches around, rips the card out of the reader (she about snapped my card in half), and asks for my ID. I show her my ID and then she resets it all and we go through the process again. Seriously, they make it so hard to pay it's stupid.

It's not up to Walmart to use chip and pin... Their executives want chip and pin, but the banks are the ones that ultimately program the card to go signature first.

I also hope you reported that employee for touching your card... Did you give her permission to?

 

[dontwalkhand]

If the cashier snapped my card in half, the card will not be the only thing snapped in half at Walmart.

I got stuck behind someone doing this the other day at Wal-Mart. The lady was sitting there jumping through all the hoops of writing a check, with her checkbook right there next to her Debit card. She could see I was getting visibly pissed off the longer this took (it was 5+ minutes), so she turned to me and says "I'm old school." I lost it, responding with "No you're POOR. You have a debit card right there, you could easily have paid with it, but let's be honest, you're writing a check because you don't have enough money in your account to buy what you are, and you're hoping that the check will not clear before you do get money." Needless to say the next few minutes were awkward, and probably won't be back.

Oh and Wal-Mart hasn't figured out Chip and Pin either. I wanted to pay with my card, they told me to swipe, my card has chip and pin, so it says insert card. I do and it starts to process, then the lady reaches around, rips the card out of the reader (she about snapped my card in half), and asks for my ID. I show her my ID and then she resets it all and we go through the process again. Seriously, they make it so hard to pay it's stupid.

 

[zaphon]

It's not up to Walmart to use chip and pin... Their executives want chip and pin, but the banks are the ones that ultimately program the card to go signature first.

I also hope you reported that employee for touching your card... Did you give her permission to?

I know that, about half the places I shop at now use Chip and Pin, which is fine (some have the readers but tell me it's not enabled yet when I go to insert it). So I actually try and swipe first, then if it asks me to insert it, I do. However Wal-Mart is the only place where they then rip it back out so they can check my ID (it's happened twice now, when they could have simply asked me to show it to them). That's about as annoying as asking to see my receipt when I leave. Legally I don't have to show it to you, so bugger off.

 

[kdarling]

Nevermind the fact that it's Walmart, what's really bizarre is that so many of these companies are trying to get into mobile payments with QR code scanning. What a waste of everyone's time.

It's not a waste for people with non-NFC capable devices. Like people with older iPhones, cheaper Androids, etc... who might make up more of Walmart's customers.

The reality is that, at this time, QR scan capability is far more universal than NFC.

One question I have, is if Walmart also plans to support NFC payments on other platforms that allow access to the NFC subsystem.

 

[MJedi]

Fine, let them release their own payment methods. But WHY does everyone feel the need to copy Apple's naming convention? Android Pay, Samsung Pay, LG Pay, Walmart Pay? Really!? How creative of them. I can't wait for Target Pay, Best Buy Pay, Petsmart Pay, Shell Pay, Costco Pay, McDonald's Pay, insert-company-name Pay.

 

[dontwalkhand]

I know that, about half the places I shop at now use Chip and Pin, which is fine (some have the readers but tell me it's not enabled yet when I go to insert it). So I actually try and swipe first, then if it asks me to insert it, I do. However Wal-Mart is the only place where they then rip it back out so they can check my ID (it's happened twice now, when they could have simply asked me to show it to them). That's about as annoying as asking to see my receipt when I leave. Legally I don't have to show it to you, so bugger off.

Report this Walmart location to your card provider. Their merchant agreement doesn't allow payment friction (e.g, checking an ID). The only thing they're allowed to check is the signature is signed on the back of the card.

 

[topdrawer]

i think it needs a few more steps.

 

[JohnApples]

I'm trying to think of the benefits of doing the QR-code "Walmart pay" over just swiping your card. The only positive I can think of, is if you discover you left your wallet at home, you can still pay.

If you're going to implement a mobile payment solution, it needs to be quick and efficient or people will NOT bother with it. Look at Apple Pay, it IS quick and efficient and still has a relatively low usage rate. What makes them think that this will take off?

 

[lionsy]

The thing is ASDA do already support contactless in at least my regions of London.. I really hope they don't go ahead and disable that now.

They probably will, competition and all, they'll want you to use their system

I get the feeling ASDA were in the middle of rolling out contactless support years ago along with everyone else in the UK until walmart put a stop to it with their intention of using their own system, my local ASDA has contactless terminals but they're disabled ;(

 

[kdarling]

Fine, let them release their own payment methods. But WHY does everyone feel the need to copy Apple's naming convention? Android Pay, Samsung Pay, LG Pay, Walmart Pay? Really!? How creative of them. I can't wait for Target Pay, Best Buy Pay, Petsmart Pay, Shell Pay, Costco Pay, McDonald's Pay, insert-company-name Pay.

Because it makes sense and helps consumers with common terminology.

For that exact same reason, Apple recently changed the name of its Passbook app to Apple Wallet... just like Google Wallet and other previous Wallets.

It's a good thing that everyone copied each other in this case.