Mobile payments being tested by Wal-Mart

In store purchases using smartphone checkouts are now available in certain locations.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has announced that they have started a new pilot program that includes mobile payments in their new checkout system that allows customers to scan the items that they’d like to purchase while they are in the aisles of the stores.

The largest retailer in the world is testing the Scan and Go program with their employees.

This trial is occurring at one of their store locations in Arkansas. If it is found to be effective and practical, it may help the retail giant to reduce the wait time in its lines. So far, it is believed that the program will begin by introducing the scanning option so that checkouts will be faster, though mobile payments capabilities will not be released right from the start.

If the first part of the program is found to be successful, mobile payments may follow.

Neither forms of the service have been rolled out to consumers, but Wal-Mart has issued emails to its employees that have offered a $25 gift card as well as $100 if they head to the supercenter location near the Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters in order to give the new scanning service a try. The company has reported that it is seeking to obtain feedback from “real people on whether this new system is user-friendly.”

This experiment has begun at a time when smartphones and mcommerce as a whole is starting to play a very important part for consumers. Deals and partnerships among large players such as telecom companies, payment services, credit cards, and retailers have been becoming increasingly common news.

Though it looks as though Wal-Mart is taking its first steps into this world by bringing the smartphone experience into its stores, without actually introducing mobile payments, it may find that it will fall behind its competition rather rapidly. Though the company remains the largest retailer in the world, it is not known for leading the way in terms of technology, so the company is likely hoping that this will not hold it back by any degree from which it cannot recover.