Amazon One connects the buyer’s palm to their credit card, allowing them to pay without waiting in line.
Amazon
Amazon is expanding its palm-scanning payment system to a Whole Foods store in Seattle, the company announced Wednesday, the first of many apps planned elsewhere.
Amazon One, which debuted in September and is currently used by about a dozen Amazon physical stores, allows shoppers to pay for items by placing their palm on a scanning device. The first time shoppers use the kiosk, they must insert a credit card to link it to their palm print. But then buyers can pay by simply keeping their hand on the kiosk.
Amazon One differs from the company’s Just Walk Out technology, which allows shoppers to pick up items and leave the store without going through a shopping line. However, the two technologies can work together and Amazon uses them in its Amazon Go stores without a box.
Amazon will initially launch Amazon One at Whole Foods in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, not far from the company’s headquarters, before launching the system at seven Whole Foods in the Seattle area in the coming months.
Palm scanning technology will be offered as one of many payment options at participating Whole Foods stores, Amazon said, and will not affect the job responsibilities of store employees.
Amazon acquired the grocery chain in 2017 for more than $ 13 billion.
Amazon has said it hopes to sell palm scanning technology to other companies such as retailers, stadiums and office buildings. Last September, Amazon said it was in “active discussions with several potential customers.”
It is unclear whether Amazon has signed any agreements with third parties interested in using the system. The company says thousands of people have signed up to use it on Amazon stores.
While Amazon has tried to expand and validate palm scanning technology as a form of payment, privacy and security experts have also raised concerns about the dangers of buyers delivering biometric data to businesses.
Amazon has stated that it designed the system to be “highly secure” and that it considers palm scanning technology to be more private than other biometric alternatives such as facial recognition.