Wal-Mart expands Scan & Go to Dallas-Fort Worth, Nashville

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has added more test markets to its trials of the Scan & Go app, bringing locations in Dallas-Fort Worth and Nashville into the fold.

Scan & Go gives shoppers the ability to scan bar codes on items that they find in-store and pay for them immediately via their Walmart account.

This allows customers to completely bypass the register and potentially long checkout lines. The only further action the shopper must take is displaying his or her digital receipt to a greeter before leaving the store.

The trials began in 2013 and already included select markets including Houston, Orlando, Fla., and northwest Arkansas.

“We are always looking at ways to improve the shopping experience, and save our customers time and money. We’re excited to offer this innovative service, which allows customers to quickly pay for their items and skip the checkout lines,” said Justin Rushing, director of corporate communications at Walmart. 

“Scan & Go is the latest example of Walmart’s commitment to create conveniences that allow our customers to shop however, whenever and wherever they want,” he added.

Rushing also pointed to the company’s pickup towers. The towers are currently available at select locations and allow online shoppers to pick up orders in-store using their smartphones as both identification and proof of purchase.

Walmart is also experimenting with a 20-by-80-foot outdoor container that allows guests to pick up digitally placed grocery orders 24 hours a day. 

Walmart is still noncommittal about potentially rolling out Scan & Go to all of its stores, though the service is available nationwide at the company’s wholesale arm, Sam’s Club.

The expansion of the trials, however, is a result of positive feedback, and the company wants to see how it performs in a wider range of environments and customer bases.

Though not universally available at this time, the service potentially has a step on the Amazon Go app, which is currently still in private beta. The Amazon Go app utilizes what the company calls, “Just Walk Out Technology.” If made available to the public, shoppers will be able to sign in at Amazon Go locations with their phones upon entering, pick items that they wish to purchase off of the shelves and then simply leave the premise. The app will be able to detect what was selected and charge the shopper’s account on its own.

The app could accompany potential Amazon.com Inc. physical stores. One prototype location can be found near the company’s headquarters in Seattle. Like the app, the physical network of Amazon Go is still in development.

Not so for Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart, which currently has about 11,700 stores across nearly 60 banners operating across 28 countries.

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Twitter: @DanAMX