Walmart combines blockchain and QR codes to let Chinese consumers verify source of fresh produce in stores

Label on food

Walmart customers in China will soon be able to scan QR codes on stickers attached to fresh meat, rice, mushrooms, cooking oil and other produce to acquire detailed product information including “the source of the scanned products and geographic location received by Walmart, logistics process, product inspection report, and many more data points”... More



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Walmart to let customers shop for groceries with their voice

Want Walmart to help you grocery shop? With our new voice capabilities, just say the word — Walmart — “Beginning this month, customers can say: ‘Hey Google, talk to Walmart’ and the Google Assistant will add items directly to their Walmart Grocery cart. Best of all, customers can be extra confident that we can quickly and accurately identify the items they are asking for with the help of information from their prior purchases with us. The more you use it, the better we’ll get.”







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Retailers raise concerns over card networks’ plans for a single buy button

Visa, Mastercard push for one-click ordering. Retailers say ‘not so fast’ — The Wall Street Journal — “Representatives of large retailers including Walmart Inc and Home Depot Inc met with federal regulators this week to raise concerns about a new online payment initiative that Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc are preparing to roll out… Retailers’ main concern with combining the buttons is that merchants won’t be able to route their debit card transactions to lower-cost networks.”


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Walmart cancels its scan-and-go payments pilot due to ‘low adoption’

Phasing out the checkout line: Retailers race to make shopping more seamless — CBC — “Walmart has abandoned mobile scan-and-go shopping at its US stores… The retailer rolled out the test project in about 120 US locations starting this past August. Walmart spokesperson Ragan Dickens said in an interview this week that scan and go had a ‘low adoption rate’.”


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Walmart files blockchain payments data storage patents

Walmart wants to store payment data on a blockchain — Coindesk — “Newly published patent filings from retail giant Walmart hint at a plan to store payments data using blockchain tech. The two applications — published on Thursday by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) — both reference using a blockchain-powered platform to secure the payment data, ensuring that private information can’t be access by unauthorized parties.”


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Walmart equips garden centre staff with mobile checkout devices

Walmart launches Check Out With Me, a new service designed to save customers time — Walmart — “A Walmart associate scans a customer’s items with the Check Out With Me mobile device, swipes their credit card and provides them with a receipt – printed or electronic options available. Customers just pay and go. It’s as simple as that.”


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Juniper predicts 2.1bn mobile wallet users in 2019

PayPal leads mobile wallet rankings as users forecast to pass 2bn next year — Juniper Research — “Nearly 2.1 billion consumers worldwide will use a mobile wallet to make a payment or send money in 2019, up by nearly 30% on the 1.6 billion recorded at the end of 2017… The report also argued that while QR code-based in-store payments had seen quite astonishing levels of adoption in China, successful use cases in Europe and North America were likely to be limited to ‘closed loop’ wallets such as those deployed by Starbucks and Walmart.”


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Walmart applies for multiple automated shopping patents

Walmart files patent applications for drone shopping assistants and smart shopping carts — The Verge — “One of the patents is clearly for the in-store experience, and proposes a sensing device to make shopping carts smart and communicate with a mobile device… There’s also a patent that tracks users through wearables, and several for managing/sensing inventory levels. Walmart has also filed a patent for drones that would assist customers shopping in-store… There are also two patents for autonomous tech. One outlines a method for detecting items placed in a container.”


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Walmart adds Store Assistant mode to mobile shopping app

Your shopping trip just got easier with this new store assistant — Walmart — “Next time you visit your local store and open the app, you’ll notice that the Walmart app transforms into Store Assistant. All of the tools you need to make shopping fast and easy, such as Walmart Pay, will be right at your fingertips. We’ve also made the product search bar and the scanner easier to find, so you can quickly read reviews, find items in store and double-check prices.”