Walmart Pay Goes Live in New York

Walmart has launched its mobile payment service in New York.

First announced in December, Walmart Pay is the retailer’s own in-house mPayment platform. Unlike the increasingly popular mPayment platforms Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, the app doesn’t use NFC technology to allow tap-and-pay transactions, but instead relies on QR codes displayed at cash registers; a user must scan the code via their smartphone camera, and then the Walmart staffer will scan the user’s items for checkout as with any other purchase.

The system is now available at all of New York state’s 100 Walmart stores, and Walmart boasts that it’s compatible with any iOS or Android device. While that broad availability could help to boost the app’s appeal, it isn’t clear whether users will prefer the code-scanning process over their regular payment cards. But if they want to pay with an iPhone, it’s pretty much the only option: Having spearheaded another mPayment rival to Apple Pay that is now stalled, Walmart remains steadfast in its opposition to the mPayment platform, refusing to support it at its own registers. So while more retailers are letting users tap to pay with their iPhones, secured by fingerprint scanning technology, Walmart customers will have to be satisfied with snapping codes with their smartphone cameras—or just paying by card.