On Wednesday (July 6), Walmart announced that its trial of Walmart Pay would go national. This is good news for Walmart shoppers who want to pay with a mobile device, but the news would have been very different had Walmart instead embraced NFC payments. Walmart opted to go with its own payments system.

“There is something very powerful about the ease and simplicity of Walmart Pay,” said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of services at Walmart U.S., in a prepared statement. What Eckert didn’t say, though, was what exactly Walmart Pay was easier and simpler than.

If we contrast Walmart Pay with two popular NFC options — Apple Pay and Android Pay — we come up with a lot of strengths and weaknesses. Whether Walmart Pay would be better for a specific shopper than, let’s say, Apple Pay, depends on that shopper’s handset.

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