Walmart is teaming up with money transfer service MoneyGram to launch an upgraded version of the platform on walmart.moneygram.com, bringing new mobile money management tools to the retailer’s customers.

The newly enhanced site is built on MoneyGram’s Money Transfer as a Service platform, which allows brands such as Walmart to co-brand the service and open up new marketing opportunities to users.

“MTaaS provides an innovative way to integrate MoneyGram’s award-winning online and mobile tools into Walmart’s, or any other retailer/bank, digital property,” said Alex Hoffman, chief product officer at MoneyGram.

“For Walmart customers who use Walmart.Moneygram.com to send money this means they can now enjoy the same great online experience that MoneyGram.com customers enjoy; including the only ‘guest send’ option in the industry, MoneyGram’s ‘Track a Transfer’ tool and a fee estimator.”

Branded experience
The service, which offers money transfers, bill payments, and other financial services, runs on both a mobile-optimized site and in-store kiosks. Walmart, which has its own first-party mobile payment app called Walmart Pay, seems to be taking an extra step towards expanding the mobile opportunities both in-store and out for its customers.

The partnership represents another strong move in Walmart’s long-term omnichannel strategy. The company has made a number of purchases and acquisitions that reflect its goal to boost its mobile and ecommerce divisions.

Last month, the retail giant acquired Jet.com as it attempted to revamp its ecommerce platform (see story). The purchase suggested that Walmart was committed to continuing its mcommerce presence as well.

Now, the partnership with MoneyGram is making Walmart stores as mobile-friendly as possible.

MoneyGram’s MTaaS works by offering its money-transferring platform to brands that want to offer their customers an expanded mobile experience without the upkeep of creating their own service.

Co-branding a mobile and in-store money transfer service gives Walmart a mobile edge while keeping the experience coherent and on-brand.

“The partnership extends the great online experience customers receive at Walmart.Moneygram.com to their mobile devices,” Mr. Hoffman said.

Mobile future
Walmart has been stepping up its game when it comes to mobile and omnichannel development, which may have been a response to plateauing online sales earlier this year, before Walmart Pay was launched nationally (see story).

After rolling Walmart Pay out to a variety of big-market states around the country in July, Walmart saw a 45 percent increase in transactions week-over-week (see story).

“A very large portion of our customers interacts with us through a mobile device,” Mr. Hoffman said. “Our new MoneyGram online experience, which launched in 2015 was built ‘mobile first.’

“The overall experience was built with a responsive design that is automatically adaptive to any device and screen size.”