Wal-Mart is joining Apple Pay and Android Pay by offering its own mobile payment service called Wal-Mart Pay. Wal-Mart becomes the first U.S. retailer to offer a service like this.

Wal-Mart will first introduce Wal-Mart Pay to stores near the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, CNet reports. Wal-Mart announced the news Thursday.

With Wal-Mart Pay, shoppers with Android and iOS devices will be able to pay for their purchases inside Wal-Mart stores. The system will work with all major credit and debit cards.

"We made a strategic decision to design Walmart Pay to work with almost any smartphone and accept almost any payment type -- even allowing for the integration of other mobile wallets in the future," said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of services for Wal-Mart U.S., in a statement. "The result is an innovation that will make the ease of mobile payments a reality for millions of Americans."

Mobile payments have been proposed for years, but Apple Pay really got things going last year when it came to paying for items with mobile devices. After Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay followed with competing systems.

Mobile payments are expected to keep growing over the next few years. Companies that offer these services believe it will build customer loyalty due to the convenience.

Wal-Mart expects the full roll-out of Wal-Mart Pay will be completed by mid-2016. Shoppers will be able to utilize an app and scan their mobile devices right at registers to complete purchases.

The Wal-Mart app is already one of the most widely used retailer apps among Google Android and Apple iOS users.

Wal-Mart says customers will use the same Wal-Mart app to access Wal-Mart Pay.

Wal-Mart shares were up 43 cents, or 0.73 percent, to $59.56 at market close Thursday.