Walmart refuses to admit it might be better off accepting Apple Pay

By Nick Heyman On May 22, 2023

If you use Apple Pay or Google Pay when you checkout at the supermarket. the pharmacy, or other retail stores, you see how convenient the whole thing is even if you have to use your fingerprint or face to verify your identity. Apple and Google take such a small slice of your purchase that the big money is made on volume. For example, Apple is believed to earn .15% (not 15% but .15%) of the value of a transaction paid for with Apple Pay. So a $10 purchase gives a penny and a half to Apple while a $100 purchase puts 15 cents in its pocket.

When you think about how many times a day an iPhone is whipped out to cover a purchase, you can see that even while getting crumbs from your transaction cake, it adds up to plenty of money for the company over a single 24-hour day. Apple would probably be collecting more money from Apple Pay if the nation’s largest retailer was onboard. Yes, that’s right. You cannot use Apple Pay at Walmart.

Walmart launched its own QR-based Walmart Pay in 2016

QR code-based Walmart Pay started up in 2016

Walmart’s former Senior VP Daniel Eckert told Bloomberg in 2017 that Walmart Pay would soon surpass Apple Pay in the number of shoppers who use the service in eligible stores. At the time, Eckert said, “If daily enrollments don’t slow down, I think that’s pretty well in the cards shortly. I would have to imagine we are getting pretty close.” Those words go right up there with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s initial response to the iPhone when he said about Windows Mobile, “I like our strategy. I like it a lot…right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year. Apple is selling zero phones a year.”

What makes Walmart’s stance so unusual is that per 9to5Mac, longtime Apple Pay holdout Kroger has finally caved. The largest supermarket chain in the U.S., Kroger started to accept Apple Pay last month. And Walmart’s top rival, Target, does accept Apple Pay leading some price-conscious consumers to look for the red bullseye instead of the yellow sunburst logo.

Some tweets blast Walmart for not accepting Apple Pay

Even on Twitter, there are random comments about Walmart’s decision. @Simplyy_Kiondra tweeted today, “@Walmart is so dumb for not having Apple Pay. It’s weird.” And @bread_maker7 tweeted last week that, “Walmart still childish for not takin[g] Apple Pay.”

Another Twitter member, @theryanprhodes, posted just hours ago, “I’m sorry but it should be illegal for Walmart NOT to support Apple Pay and other NFC based payment systems. It’s openly hostile to consumers, anti-competitive, and a gross invasion of privacy the way they track consumers. Besides Walmart, Home Depot also doesn’t accept Apple Pay.

Looking at Walmart, it’s hard to believe that giving up .15% of the value of a transaction is going to dramatically do damage to the company’s profit margin. And it could more than make up the difference by getting back some of the business that has gone to Target and other retailers that support Apple Pay. Perhaps the company is just too invested in Walmart Pay to admit that it has made a mistake.

With that in mind, kudos to Kroger for realizing that not allowing the use of Apple Pay at the cash register was not a good strategy. Now we’ll see whether Walmart can make its own admission. We should also point out that Walmart does not accept Google Pay or any other mobile or digital wallet.

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