Walmart Accepting Alipay m-Payments in China (May 19, 2015)
Walmart is making bold moves with mobile payments in China, where it’s signed on with e-commerce giant Alibaba to accept mobile payments via the Alipay Wallet in 25 of its 410 Chinese outlets, the Arkansas-based retailer announced this week. Walmart will begin the rollout with stores surrounding the southern China city of Shenzhen and expand the service to other cities later this year.
Customers shopping at participating Walmart stores in China may check out by showing an Alipay barcode to the cashier, who scans it to complete the transaction. Alipay has more than 270 million active users in China, and 40,000 stores in China accept Alipay at the POS.
Walmart has a lower m-payments profile in the U.S. It’s a founding member of Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), the coalition of merchants developing the CurrentC mobile payments platform. MCX says CurrentC is undergoing tests and will roll out later this year. Walmart does not yet accept Apple Pay, but a Walmart executive said the company is open to accepting Apple Pay, according to a March 4, 2015 report in the Wall Street Journal.
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