Walmart NFC Rollout Accelerates the Move to Wallet-Based Checkout

Walmart’s move to NFC lands as mobile wallets are taking a larger role at the register, giving one of the prominent remaining retail holdouts in the United States the same contactless payment infrastructure already common across much of the market.

Beginning Monday (Aug. 24), Walmart is enabling tap to pay at select Walmart and Sam’s Club locations, with plans to reach all U.S. stores and clubs by the end of 2026 and fuel stations by mid-2027. Customers will be able to use eligible contactless cards, phones and smartwatches while continuing to have access to cash, cards and Walmart Pay. Sam’s Club will continue offering Scan and Go.

The immediate change is straightforward. Walmart is adding a form of contactless acceptance already available across much of U.S. retail. The broader read-across is at checkout, where consumers are using digital wallets more often while merchants are separately adding more capabilities around the payment moment.

That market extends beyond Walmart and Apple. Google said Friday (Aug. 21) that shoppers will be able to use cards stored in Google Wallet to pay through Google Pay as Walmart activates the new terminals. OnePay, meanwhile, has expanded Apple Pay support to its CashRewards Card, with its Builder Card scheduled to follow later this fall. Its debit card has supported Apple Pay since 2022.

NFC Meets a Changing Checkout

The timing coincides with a change in consumer behavior.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Apple Pay @11: Usage is Up, but Competitors are Gaining Ground,” published in October, found that 31% of consumers used a mobile wallet in a store at least once toward the end of last year, more than double the 14% recorded in 2024. In a separate measure of consumers’ most recent in-store transaction, digital wallets accounted for 11.8% of payments, up from 0.9% in 2022 and just behind cash at 12.1%.

NFC therefore expands the ways consumers can present credentials they already use. NFC therefore expands how consumers can present payment credentials they already use. They can tap an eligible contactless card or use an eligible card provisioned into a digital wallet on a phone or wearable.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report found that Apple Pay was used for 10.2% of eligible in-store transactions in 2025, up from 8.9% a year earlier, while its estimated annual in-store sales volume reached $450 billion. Google Pay, PayPal and Cash App were gaining users, making the expansion of contactless acceptance relevant to a wider wallet market rather than one provider.

Walmart’s rollout will provide another large test of whether broader merchant acceptance translates into more frequent in-store wallet use.

Walmart’s NFC rollout also comes as the physical checkout is taking on more functions. NFC expands how consumers can present payment credentials; separately, merchants are building offers, loyalty and other capabilities into the same transaction. The PYMNTS Intelligence report “The Data Behind the Smart Checkout Opportunity,” published in August, found that 58% of surveyed merchants used checkout-integrated promotions in the past year, while 93% said they would adopt smart checkout quickly or selectively.

The findings put payments providers in an important position as checkout develops, including with the NFC-related news. The terminal can become an execution point for offers and loyalty as well as a device for accepting a credential, provided merchants retain control over how their data and promotions are used.

Walmart’s rollout doesn’t make NFC synonymous with smart checkout. It does put another payment option at the same physical point where merchants are separately experimenting with promotions, loyalty and other checkout functions.

For the wider retail industry, Walmart’s move is another marker of how the register is changing. Contactless acceptance is broadening, mobile wallet use is rising. Merchants are putting more functionality around the payment moment. Despite the differing technologies, the convergence is gaining ground.