WeChat Pay's “No-Queueing Month” hits traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers

Earlier this month, WeChat Pay declared the month of June as the “No-Queueing Month.” Now that the campaign is entering its final week let’s take a look at what it’s all about.

During the campaign period (from June 11th to July 5th), shoppers can receive 7.5-10% special discounts if they choose to use the “Scan, Pay & Go” mini-program to check out instead of queuing at the cash registers. WeChatPay also gives out larger discounts at random that go up to RMB 50. The “Scan, Pay & Go” app allows shoppers to scan the items they would like to purchase and pay within the WeChat app.

WeChat Pay named the month of June as “No-Queueing Month” (Image Credit: Tencent Tech)

According to WeChat‘s recent post on social media, over 4000 supermarkets and convenience stores across China are participating in the campaign to encourage WeChat users to go “queue-free.”

Walmart is among the many retailers who are participating. According to the WeChat post, “Walmart is partnering exclusively with WeChat Pay as their preferred method of mobile payment in China. At select Walmart locations, shoppers can use the ‘Scan, Pay & Go’ mini program as they shop to scan the barcode on items.”

The world’s biggest retailer plans to roll out the “Scan, Pay & Go” feature at every store in China by this year (in Chinese). Walmart and WeChat Pay deepened their ties when Walmart decided to stop supporting Alipay and start accepting WeChat Pay as the main mobile payment method in March. In the same month, Walmart started working with Tencent to test the “Scan, Pay & Go” mini-program at selected locations in Shenzhen.

(Screenshot) Walmart and Carrefour’s “Scan, Pay & Go” mini-program

WeChat launched a similar marketing campaign named “Cashless Day” last year, which lasted the entire month of August. The purpose of the campaign was to leverage WeChat’s social network to promote the on-going cashless trend. The campaign, which goes head-to-head with Alipay’s “Cashless City Week,” encouraged users to share red envelopes, coupons and other incentives distributed by WeChat-partnered retailers with their friends.

As China moves closer towards a cashless society, payment giants like WeChat Pay and Alipay are pushing boundaries in the bricks-and-mortar retailing space. WeChat’s campaign this year not only attempts to challenge the offline shopping experience but also the traditional retailer business model—helping businesses save labor costs and better manage heavier flows of shoppers at peak hours.