Dive Brief:

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has adopted MasterCard’s MasterPass digital wallet and will accept consumers using the payment method on all its U.S. e-commerce properties, the companies announced on Monday.

• The move is aimed at reducing friction for online checkout. Consumers that sign up with MasterPass have to input their payment and shipping details only once, and the details are stored for future use in one-click checkout.  

• It’s not clear yet whether Wal-Mart customers’ use of MasterPass will allow them to bypass registering on Walmart.com or using the retailer’s own payment app, Walmart Pay, which was unveiled last month. 

Dive Insight:

Wal-Mart Stores’ recent movements in digital payments is especially notable considering it was the ringleader in the development of CurrentC, the mobile payment app that is still stuck in beta. 

The retailer surprised many when it unveiled its Walmart Pay app last month. Following the unveiling of Walmart Pay last month, Walmart SVP Daniel Eckert said the company would consider allowing shoppers to use third party mobile wallets if there was enough demand for it. But the company’s adoption of MasterPass may be a sign that third party wallets -- which could enable consumers to use one digital wallet across devices and shopping platforms -- are the future of mobile commerce.

“We believe in these ‘super wallets’ or non-closed wallets like those from Apple, Samsung, Visa, or MasterPass, that you can use across all your apps,” Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of global commerce services and payments company BlueSnap, told Retail Dive. “Plus PayPal and the international guys. There will be two or three of these wallets on your device, not six or seven. We’re predicting the wallets are going to gain more momentum.”