Costco now Accepts Apple Pay, but Chances of Walmart Joining the Bandwagon are Slim

As Apple pay continues to gain popularity in the newly induction mobile payment competition race, other companies have decided to play ball. Recently Costco became the newest giant retailers in the United States to allow the customers to pay via Apple’s smartphone app.

That being said, there are still some giant retailers refusing to join the Apple pay bandwagon. One notable retailer is Walmart. Yes, the largest retail store brand in America.

The Costco Apple Pay partnership

As per the information from the National Retail  Federation, Costco (which happens to be the 4^th largest retailer in the United States, began accepting its customers to use Apple Pay first in its mega 530-odd store in the United States.

Notably, Costco has 750 stores located in North America and the rest of the world.

Additionally, the company has also stated that it has been working round the clock to enable mobile payments to become available in some of its gas stations as well.

Of note is that Costco now becomes Apple Pay’s largest partner, following 7-Eleven and CVS recently accepting the services of the mobile app.

Flexibility for customers

One analyst from the research company eMarketer, commented on Apple Pay’s recent partnerships, stating that the company has been industrious the last couple of weeks enticing retailers to have the Apple Pay app as an option when it comes to paying.

In the US alone, there are over 22 million users that access the Apple Pay app to make payments. However, eMarketer predicts that the company will experience a 9 percent growth, pushing that number to 24 million in 2019.

Additionally, Apple stated that it recorded over 1 billion transactions carried out by Apple Pay in the 2^nd Quarter of 2018 alone. This translates to a 300% rise in the number of transactions compared to the number in 2017.

However, there is one catch when it comes to using Apple Pay to make payments at Costco. If you use a credit card, it’s got to be a Visa because Costco is currently in partnership with Visa and Citigroup.

As a matter of fact, the same condition will apply even when a customer uses other payment apps such as Google Pay or Samsung Pay.

 

Walmart’s reluctance

So now that other giant retailers are following through, the big question still lingers; will Walmart join Apple Pay? It is highly unlikely.

In fact, in a statement released Walmart representatives, the company does recognize that there are other mobile payment options out there such as Apple Pay. However, Walmart has decided to stick exclusively to Walmart Pay as their accepted mobile Payment option.

So why is Walmart holding out this long? It all goes back to the collaboration deal that the retail store made with other retailers such as Target, Best Buy, and 7-Eleven to create a mobile payment structure known as CurrentC (which mind you never had an official launched).

That being said, the technology was later acquired by JP Morgan to be used in developing the Chase Pay platform.

The Success of Walmart Pay

When the collaboration between the giant retailers capitulated, Walmart decided to make its own mobile payment app.

Walmart Pay first began operation in December 2015 at select stores in Bentonville in close proximity of the company’s headquarters. The app was then made available to all Walmart customers in July 2016.

For customers to access Walmart pay, they have to open the app while standing on the checkout line, and the cashier will finalize the traction by scanning a QR code.

In turn, the transaction is then billed to the credit card that has been linked to the app, and an email of the receipt is then sent to the customer.

Walmart, like Starbucks, has gained tremendous success with its mobile payment platform. One of the reasons for this is because it employs an effective reward program for its customers.

Additional unwanted fees

Additionally, another vital reason why Walmart is reluctant to employ Apple Pay is that it is not so enthusiastic about the 0.15 percent cut that the bank makes with every transaction.

Being that it is the biggest American retailer, such a mild cut to the customer translates to massive amounts of money lost by Walmart to banks during the transaction process.