Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) Lobbying against Apple Pay with Massive support

The retail giant has made it its mission to drive Apple Pay by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) out of business, and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Pay is struggling to stay afloat in a market dominated by Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and its allies.

It has hardly been two weeks since the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Pay system was launched, and the mobile payment system is already facing tough luck with retailers, all of whom seem to be rejecting it. Surprisingly, there is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with the system. According to customer reviews, customers have praised the payment method for working flawlessly and smoothly at most outlets which accept Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Pay. Then, why is it that companies like Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) have simply refused to work with it?

The answer to this question is CurrentC. CurrentC is a new mobile payment system due to come out in the first half of 2015. The mobile payment system is based on the QR code technology, and is not dependent on users’ phones to carry the NFC feature. CurrentC will be launched as a mobile app on both iOS and Android OS, so it is more universal in terms of usability. With over $4.5 trillion circulating in the market of credit cards alone, it aims to bring all credit card users onto its system.

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), among others, has already jumped on board with CurrentC payment system. This has baffled consumers, who consider Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Pay to be the superior system of mobile payment. However, the move is not influenced by the app’s capabilities at all. Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), along with CVS (NYSE:CVS), Rite-Aid (NYSE:RAD), Target (NYSE:TGT), and Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), falls under MCX, Merchant Customer Exchange, the company responsible for the creation of CurrentC, and this influence alone is enough to ensure CurrentC’s undisputed acceptability at these retail chains.

This influence became evident last week, when Rite-Aid (NYSE:RAD) and CVS (NYSE:CVS) rejected to accept Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Pay specifically, frustrating customers who had begun liking the new mobile payment system. Industry analysts are not excited about CurrentC as well. According to them, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Pay has provided consumers a user-friendly system which has made payments at checkouts easier, faster, and secure. CurrentC will not make it any easier than credit cards to pay at checkouts. The app will require users to open it, log in information, and then make payments using QR codes. It would be faster to carry out transactions using a credit. Why would users shift to CurrentC at all?

But retailers are not worried. To them, CurrentC offers a much better payment system because it cuts down on extra fee charged by credit card companies on transactions, as well as keeps user data with the retailer. This is in direct contrast to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Pay, which has opted to keep user data highly encrypted, hence out of the hands of retailers. To say CurrentC is more retailer-friendly than user friendly is factually correct. And this is one of the major reasons why MCX wishes all its retail chains to opt for the CurrentC mobile payment system.