Overview
- Walmart started enabling tap-to-pay at select Walmart and Sam’s Club locations beginning Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, and says it will expand contactless checkout to all U.S. stores and clubs by the end of 2026.
- The new option will accept eligible contactless cards, phones, smartwatches and major digital wallets including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, and customers can add Walmart, Sam’s Club and OnePay cards to those wallets.
- The retailer plans to extend contactless support to its fuel stations by mid-2027 and will phase the in-store rollout over months, though a detailed store-by-store schedule has not been published by Walmart.
- Walmart frames the move as a convenience and choice play, while analysts and reporting say the shift also reflects efforts to change payment economics and reduce interchange costs through fintech partnerships like OnePay.
- The change ends years of Walmart’s resistance to NFC tap-to-pay—after pushing QR-based Walmart Pay since 2016—and aligns the chain with competitors that adopted contactless payments years earlier.