According to one industry analyst, Walmart Pay will surpass Apple Pay in active US mobile payments users by the end of 2018.
Richard Crone, CEO of Crone Consulting LLC, says in a Bloomberg interview, by the end of the year Walmart Pay could have more users making mobile payments than Apple.
“They flawlessly deployed the system, and it works,” Crone said. Walmart Pay also incorporates in-store offers, promotions, rewards and gift-card balances all in one place, making it convenient for users, he said.
The corporate strategists at Walmart must be popping the champagne corks to celebrate the growing success of Walmart Pay as we enter the prime holiday shopping season.
When Apple Pay first launched in 2014, Walmart looked at it but decided to develop its own payments app – Walmart Pay – and launch it in December 2015. That turns out to be a very smart business decision.
Tens of thousands signing up daily for Walmart Pay
Now available in 4,776 US stores, Walmart is enrolling tens of thousands of new Walmart Pay users daily, up from just thousands a few months ago. The $49 billion mobile payments market in the US leaves lots of room for growth.
Daniel Eckert, Walmart’s senior vice president for services and digital acceleration, says two-thirds of customers who sign up try it again within three weeks. In fact, its rate of adoption is higher than Android Pay and Samsung Pay combined.
Another advantage for Walmart Pay is it works on both iOS and Android phones which gives it a much bigger potential market share as mobile payments start to accelerate in the US.
That’s a sure sign of positive things to come for Walmart Pay and by the end of the year people may sometimes ask “Apple who?” when it comes to payments in Walmart stores.
Author: Douglas Hall, Publisher, PaymentsNEXT
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