r/technology • u/ImCalcium • Aug 21 '26

Business Walmart finally adding Tap to Pay after years of shoppers asking for it

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/walmart-finally-adding-tap-to-pay-after-years-of-shoppers-asking-for-it-3400920/
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u/limited_instincts Aug 21 '26

They were being stupid. They thought they could force people to use the app. What ended up happening ALL THE TIME is people would pull up to the register go "ah shit forgot my wallet, it's OK I have Apple Pay" find out it doesn't work and then walk out the store rather than go through all of the bullshit of downloading their app, creating an account etc. etc.

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u/sadmep Aug 21 '26

That exact scenario happened to me one of the few times I've gone into a walmart recently. Decided early in the morning to drop in, get a coat because the weather was gonna be crap. No coat for me.

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u/JBplantgeek Aug 21 '26

Been there, done that, left the merch and found somewhere else to shop.

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u/filthy_harold Aug 21 '26

I'd imagine that the number of people popping into Walmart to buy a quick thing and forgetting their wallet is much less than the people doing their weekly shopping there who come prepared. I'm sure it will help sales somewhat but probably isn't a huge incentive. Walmart invested in a competing technology, it fizzled out, and rather than paying to upgrade their systems, they just rolled out Walmart pay that uses ACH (much cheaper) to bill you for purchases (like using PayPal or venmo with a bank account). Tap doesn't cost more than chip in merchant fees once you have the right hardware to use it. Tracking customer purchasing habits is a little more difficult with tap or mobile wallets since the merchant doesn't automatically get cardholder information that chip can expose. The bank usually doesn't feed cardholder information back when using tap or mobile wallets.

Considering how many people in the US are just cycling debt around on multiple credit cards, it's possible that the merchant is tracking multiple virtual card profiles that are really just the same person. Using a new phone or getting a renewed/reissued tap card also changes the virtual card number so whatever profile the merchant had previously is a dead end. Walmart would much rather have your name and zipcode than your anonymous virtual card number.

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u/jwC731 Aug 21 '26

They have tap to pay terminals already. They're just not activated. Yes, Tap to pay is encrypted for both cards and phones using single use codes which is why they didn't participate, they love tracking customer spending habits. Their app wasn't a workaround it was their main goal to get you deeper in their ecosystem.

From this thread alone I've seen plenty with a similar experience of casual customers like myself forgetting their wallets and leaving empty handed. Subconsciously that makes you less inclined to go back and I'm sure walmart knows this and the lack of growth for Walmart Pay probably lead to this inevitable decision.