Mega-chain Walmart announced today that it plans to offer mobile payments to its shoppers. Called Walmart Pay, the service will launch next year as a feature in Walmart’s existing smartphone app. The company accounts for about 10 percent of retail sales in the U.S., so Walmart Pay can potentially pose a challenge to Apple Pay and Android Pay if enough customers start using it.
In its current iteration, however, Walmart Pay sounds like a hassle. To use the service, which will be available in the first half of 2016, customers need to open the Walmart app and present a QR code to their cashier to check out with the payment information already entered in their Walmart.com account. Walmart claims that its mobile app currently has about 22 million users.
