The volume of transactions on Walmart Pay recently increased 45 percent week-over-week, following the completion of the mobile payments solution’s rollout to all of the chain’s stores in the United States.

The jump in transactions suggests that shoppers are quickly embracing the opportunity to pay at the checkout using the Walmart app on their phones. Walmart also reports that 88 percent of Walmart Pay transactions come from repeat users, suggesting that users are satisfied with their experience.

“Walmart Pay is really just the beginning of new things to come from us,” said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of services at Walmart U.S., during a conference call with reporters to discuss Walmart Pay. “Our investments in mobile and digital are paying off and we are building deeper relationships with our customers across our ecosystem.

“We are looking forward to delivering new tools like Walmart Pay that allow our customers to use the Walmart app as their remote control for a faster, more convenient shopping experience at Walmart.”

Changing checkout behavior
Walmart Pay is now available in all of the chain’s more than 4,600 stores in the U.S.

The news comes as Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay continue to try to convince retailers to offer their solutions to consumers. The competitive mobile payments space also recently claimed another victim as MCX, a consortium of big retailers, withdrew its consumer-facing payments app.

Given the number of different options available in the market and consumer confusion over what is available at which locations, Walmart introduced Walmart Pay late last year to further enhance the in-store experience by making checking out faster and easier while keeping shoppers inside its app, which has more than 20 million active users. The retailer also recognized that its customers were already using their phones to assist with their shopping trips, so payments seemed like a natural extension.

To use Walmart Pay, customers open the app at checkout, activate the scanning capability and scan a unique QR code that appears on the debit reader or on the self-checkout registers. The app then connects the customer’s basket to his or her preferred payment method on Walmart.com.

While Walmart is not ready to report what percentage of overall transactional volume is coming from Walmart Pay, Mr. Eckert did say that shoppers are responding positively. Looking at in-app ratings, four out of five said they would recommend Walmart Pay and three out of four have given the solution a five-star rating.

Another key metric Walmart is looking at is average basket size, with Walmart Pay users so far spending the same amount as other customers. This suggests that Walmart Pay, while influencing checkout behavior, is not having an impact on shopping behavior.

Marketing support
With Walmart Pay now available in all stores, the chain is likely to start considering how it might leverage the solution for further shopping enhancements. For example, the transactional data collected via Walmart Pay could enable the chain to offer smart shopping lists to app users that build from previous purchases.

With the rollout completed, Walmart will begin ramping up its marketing activity in support of Walmart Pay. This will include in-store, digital, print and outdoor media.

One of the chain’s goals for Walmart Pay is that it will bring new customers to the brand as well as encourage more shoppers to download the app.

Walmart Pay works with any iOS or Android device at any checkout using any credit or debit card. No payment credentials are stored on a phone or exchanged at the point-of-sale.

The retailer does not plan to turn on near-field communications capabilities at its stores in the near future, meaning payments solutions such as Apple Pay are not available.

“We really do not view Walmart Pay as a payment capability for payment sake,” Mr. Eckert said. “It is really around building a digital relationship with our customers and improving the shopping experience, in this case, built around checkout, by making it easier, more convenient and fun.”