Wal-Mart stores nationwide will be getting into a new type of offering involving money transfer services. The launch of their new service is a straightforward competition towards the dominating Western Union Co. and MoneyGram. The retail store hopes to lure in more store traffic for their outlets and provide better financial services to their customers.
The money transfer service in Wal-Mart will be operational by next week, with Euronet Worldwide Inc's Ria Money transfer subsidiary running the it. Wal-Mart has made the statement that their money transfer service will be called "Walmart-2Walmart,' and will be charging lesser fees compared to their competitors.
Once the service is operational, Wal-Mart money transfer service customers will be able to send and receive money through the 4,000 discount stores around United States. The large chains of retail stores also hopes that some of the money transferred will provide additional sales for some of their branches, while they will offer much lower rates for their service.
Western Union experienced a 4% downfall of their shares since the reports of the Wal-Mart money transfer service was released, while MoneyGram International Inc. suffered significantly with a 15.6% decrease. Western Union gave a statement that they have no worries about the current move of the retail store, pointing out that their company is already well established with a network of agents reaching an estimated 46,000 nationwide. MoneyGram may experience some loss from this new venture from the retail giant, because just last year 27% of its revenue came from Wal-Mart itself.
Wal-Mart is believed to have added this new service in order to boost and increase their financial revenue. They are also finding more ways to make their customers experience better and efficient. WalMart-2WaMart transactions can only be made via store to store, and an online facility is not yet included to their new money transfer service.
