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Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and others team up to create new mobile wallet solution

Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and others team up to create new mobile wallet solution

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Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and a number of other major US retailers have joined up to create Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which promises to offer consumers "a versatile mobile-commerce experience that will combine the convenience of paying at the register with customizable offers."

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The mobile payment landscape has rapidly evolved in recent months. Square entered into a major partnership with Starbucks, all four major US carriers teamed up with ISIS and Google, and Google Wallet was completely overhauled— and that's just in the last two weeks. Now, some major retailers are getting in on the action: Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and a number of other major US retailers have joined up to create Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which promises to offer consumers "a versatile mobile-commerce experience that will combine the convenience of paying at the register with customizable offers."

It remains to be seen exactly how MCX will work; the initial offering is still in the development phase. That said, it sounds like the initial offering will allow vendors to deploy a mobile payment system that'll be available for "virtually any smartphone." MCX was quick to point out that its solution will easily integrate a variety of offers, promotions, and retail programs — it seems the group is hoping to get consumers to spend a bit more by filtering deals and sales down to consumers. There's no timeframe as to when this new payment system will begin rolling out, but MCX said it would release information on more additional participating companies in the coming months. While there's a huge number of competing mobile payment services fighting to break out of the pack, the tremendous retail support behind MCX means it has at least as good a shot as any of the other options.