• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, July 12, 2016

Walmart says Walmart Pay, which it began rolling out in back in December, is now available in all 4,600 of its stores. And experts say the mobile app puts the retailer one step closer to level footing with Amazon. 

“What wins the Amazon shopper over is the customer experience,” says Gene Alvarez, managing VP at Gartner. “Walmart has always competed on price. But if the prices are equal, which consumers can now quickly figure out, it becomes about customer experience. Who is it easier to do business with?”

Customer adoption of such payment apps is big, he says, and people are used to using them at places like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. “So Walmart is on trend with this, and it’s one more way to remove friction for shoppers, speeding them through check-outs faster, and theoretically, reducing lines at registers,” he tells Marketing Daily. “This make things easier for shoppers.”

“There is something very powerful about the ease and simplicity of Walmart Pay,” says Walmart SVP Daniel Eckert, in its announcement. “We want to make every day easier for busy families. We’re connecting all the parts of Walmart into one seamless shopping experience with great stores, easy pickup, fast delivery, frictionless checkout and apps and websites that are simple to use.”

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer says the rollout has led to a 45% increase in Walmart Pay transactions, with 75% of customers using it giving it a five-star rating, and 82% saying they’d recommend it to a friend.

The retailer says that even beyond Walmart Pay, “we’re looking forward to delivering new tools that allow customers to use the Walmart App as their remote control for a faster, more convenient shopping experience.”

And Walmart, along with every other retailer, needs to deliver on that promise, says Alvarez: “Customer experience is the new battleground.”