Samsung Pay plans to enable US online shopping in 2016

Samsung Electronics Co plans to expand its fledgling mobile payment service in the US next year, allowing users to shop online and with more smartphones that support the electronic wallet.

Lower-priced Samsung phones will likely start offering the mobile wallet “within the next year,” Thomas Ko, global co-general manager of Samsung Pay, said in an interview. The service debuted in South Korea on just a handful of high-end Samsung phones, including the Galaxy Note 5, the Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6, and S6 Edge Plus.

Wider “handset availability of Samsung Pay as well as online payment support is coming soon,” he said late last week.

He did not comment on which other countries Samsung Pay would expand to.

Samsung Pay has already scored a lead over its major rivals Apple and Android, by launching its US service on September 28 with technology that is widely used at most stores. Apple Pay and Alphabet Inc’s Android Pay require retailers to installnew equipment.

By accepting payments online, Samsung Pay will compete with established rival PayPal Holdings Inc, as well as newcomers such as Visa Inc’s Visa Checkout.

Mobile wallets have struggled to find favour in the US, which has also...