One week after the reveal of Walmart Pay, Walmart’s custom mobile payment solution, a new report claims that Target is working on its own wallet app.
Three sources speaking to Reuters say that Target is in the “early stages” of creating its own mobile wallet. Target has reportedly partnered with credit card companies, and they are said to be leaning toward using QR codes that you would would bring up on your phone and scan at the payment terminal to pay for goods.
Target’s mobile payment service could launch as soon as 2016, sources say. However, Target has allegedly not done any testing for the service in its stores yet.
When asked about a custom mobile payment solution, Target spokesman Eddie Baeb said that the retailer is an active member of the Merchant Customer Exchange, which is behind CurrentC. He added, though, that Target is looking into other mobile payment solutions. Baeb wouldn’t comment on the rumor that Target is creating is own payment service.
The mobile payment arena is already pretty crowded with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, the upcoming LG Pay, and CurrentC (which is currently only in testing). Now Target is allegedly hoping to get in on that action, too. It’s kind of interesting to hear this news because Target already takes Apple Pay in its app, but when it comes to in-store payments, I’m sure Target would prefer customers use a Target-specific payment method, but services like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay can be used at many different stores. Those services are also integrated into a user’s device, which means that they’ll likely be faster to use than a service like Walmart Pay or this rumored Target app.
What do you make of this rumor? Do you think Target should try making its own mobile payment service or should it just accept existing solutions from Apple, Samsung, and Google?