Walmart prepares Google Pay and Apple Pay support after years of resisting tap-to-pay

Walmart is preparing to support Google Pay and Apple Pay at US stores, ending one of the most prominent holdouts in American contactless payments. The retailer has historically directed customers toward Walmart Pay inside its own application rather than supporting the wallets already configured on most modern smartphones.

Moving toward standard NFC payments reduces friction considerably: customers can simply tap a compatible phone or smartwatch rather than opening a retailer-specific application and scanning a code. Walmart's scale makes the change especially significant. Contactless payment adoption in the United States has lagged several European and Asian markets, partly because large merchants continued supporting inconsistent systems.

Broader Walmart compatibility can normalize tap-to-pay for millions of shoppers who still encounter it irregularly. The move also illustrates a wider retreat from proprietary payment strategies. Retailers value customer data and app engagement, but convenience increasingly wins when consumers expect the same wallet to work everywhere. For Android users, Walmart finally joining Google Pay removes one of the country's most visible exceptions.