Why A Partnership Between Ripple And Walmart Could Happen Soon

In early 2018, Ripple XRP announced a pending partnership with MoneyGram. MoneyGram is an international money transfer service, much like Western Union, who as we know seem likely to partner with Ripple over the coming weeks. Just yesterday (3^rd April 2018), MoneyGram announced a partnership with Walmart, through the launch of their new service ‘Walmart2World’. What Walmart2World does, is it allows customers to transfer money between Walmart stores and any other MoneyGram location in the world, over the 200 countries that MoneyGram currently operates in. MoneyGram as a service has been available in Walmart stores for many years now, however this latest move highlights that things might be changing between the way the two partners operate. By operating under the guise of Walmart2World, Walmart are personalising the MoneyGram service as something unique to Walmart, enticing new customers into Walmart who need to pay bills and send money etc. Moreover, Walmart2World allows users to estimate fees before they transfer and of course can track the status of their transfers. The service is both available in store and online. This is where it gets interesting… Since it is official that MoneyGram and Ripple XRP are working together to finetune a cross border payment system and since it is now official that Walmart and MoneyGram are working together in a live cross border payment system, the maths indicates that Ripple really is the missing link between MoneyGram and Walmart. At the moment, Walmart2World only allows transfers in standard currencies, as does MoneyGram, but, when the MoneyGram and Ripple partnership goes live, there’s absolutely nothing stopping a Ripple and Walmart partnership, through Walmart2World, which just uses MoneyGrams platform, rebranded to suit the Walmart demographic. So, the theory is (bear in mind, its still just a theory) that Ripple could become integrated into Walmart2World, both online and in Walmart stores. If this is the case, this is a huge step forward, not only for Ripple but for the rest of the world which is striving for cryptocurrency adoption. This is because, according to CNBC ‘Nearly every American spent money at Walmart last year’. According to a study, 95% of US consumers shopped at one of Walmart’s 4700 stores. The shocking statistic that accompanies this is that only 42% of customers spent money on Amazon. You can see the full report for yourself here: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/12/nearly-every-american-spent-money-at-wal-mart-last-year.html If this is indeed the case, then Ripple could be accessed by a vast number of new customers who could use it to pay bills and transfer money in Walmart stores across the US. This really is a fascinating concept, customers could even start being savvy enough to transfer Ripple to themselves to shop at Walmart to get better value for money. As I have said, no official announcements have been made and this is just a deduction of facts with regards to Walmart and MoneyGram’s partnerships. We do however know that Ripple and MoneyGram are working together and really, a partnership between Ripple and Walmart can only be advantageous for the two companies. Above all, whether it’s going to happen or not, this truly hosts a lot of exciting potential, not just for cryptocurrency fans, but for a lot of new people as well. Featured Image Source: Flickr - Great Photo By Mike Mozart