Google Pay and Apple Pay are finally heading to Walmart stores

Walmart is preparing to support Google Pay and Apple Pay in its US stores, ending one of the most visible gaps in America's contactless-payment ecosystem. The retailer has historically pushed customers toward Walmart Pay, which relies on its own application rather than the NFC wallets already configured on most modern phones. Standard tap-to-pay dramatically reduces that friction.

Customers can use the phone or watch they already carry without opening a retailer-specific application, scanning a code or learning another checkout process. Walmart's scale makes the change particularly important because inconsistent merchant support has slowed contactless-payment normalization in the United States compared with many European and Asian markets. The move also reflects the declining appeal of proprietary payment systems.

Retailers value app engagement and customer data, but consumers increasingly expect a universal digital wallet to work almost everywhere. For Android and Wear OS users, Walmart adopting Google Pay removes one of the most conspicuous remaining exceptions.