Chase Pay Lands Walmart, More MCX Retailers to Come?
It may not be surprising that MCX’s largest member will support Chase Pay, but it’s still a coup for the bank-backed mobile wallet, which already has deals with some other retail heavyweights.
Walmart will begin accepting Chase Pay starting in 2017, signaling that the retail giant—a notable Apple Pay holdout that unveiled its own in-house mobile payments service earlier this year—is willing to partner with at least some outside providers on mobile payments. The retail giant will accept Chase Pay for purchases made in-store and online via its Website and mobile app. In-store payments via Chase Pay will be routed through the Walmart Pay mobile app, Chase said in an announcement.
For Chase, the integration with Walmart could be a major step in increasing takeup and usage of Chase Pay. The service already counts several big-name retailers among its merchant partners, including Starbucks, Shell, Phillips 66 and Wakefern Food Corp., which operates 330 supermarkets along the East Coast. Chase Pay is being seen by many industry observers as a bellwether for bank-backed mobile wallets, which have begun battling for market share against the likes of the “Pays” and retailer payment apps.
Walmart in May began rolling out its own Walmart Pay service, which got a fast start out of the gate, according to the company, which has long resisted accepting NFC-based mobile payment services such as Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay. Like Walmart Pay, Chase Pay uses QR codes rather than NFC. Chase offers merchants who use its payment services lower fees to process transactions made via Chase cards—and in September, the bank struck a deal with Walmart under which the retailer will process payments via ChaseNet, the bank’s processing network. Also, Chase Pay was created in partnership with MCX, the retailer mobile payments consortium of which Walmart was a founding member.
“We can expect many, if not all of the MCX member organizations to follow through on the deal with Chase Pay,” notes Rick Oglesby, president of AZ Payments Group and a partner at Double Diamond Group. “For Chase Pay, working with Walmart is obviously a very big deal. Having agreements in place with Starbucks (the most successful in-store mobile payments program) and Walmart (the largest retailer) is a huge boost to the Chase Pay program. There’s still a long way to go, but Chase Pay is starting on solid footing.”
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