In September last year, Amazon rolled out a new way to identify yourself and pay for goods at a select few of its retail stores in Seattle. Now that contactless technology is being rolled out to more locations.
It's called Amazon One, and it replaces the need to pull out a smartphone or payment card by instead simply scanning your palm at the door. After signing up using a credit card and mobile number, Amazon scans your palm, creates a biometric stamp (unique palm signature), and links it with the card details. Once registered, any store supporting Amazon One can be used simply by presenting your palm on entry, with no physical contact required.
The very convenient system is clearly proving popular as Amazon has announced it's expanding to more stores in the the Greater Seattle area over the next few weeks, taking the total to 12 physical retail locations.
"Thousands of customers in our Seattle-area Amazon stores have signed up to use Amazon One and are providing us with great feedback on the experience, from how quick it is to how they appreciate its contactless nature. We're excited to continue rapidly expanding Amazon One as an option in even more of our stores in the Seattle area—today we’ve added it as an option in our Amazon 4-star store in Lynnwood at Alderwood Mall and in the coming weeks it’ll be added to three additional locations in the area, including Amazon Books at Bellevue Square and Amazon 4-star and Amazon Pop Up in South Lake Union," explained Dilip Kumar, Vice President, Physical Retail & Technology at Amazon.
A full list of the available locations is available on the Amazon One website, and Amazon says your unique palm signature is never stored on an Amazon One device. It's also protected at all times by "best-in-class technical and physical security controls."
Amazon recently picked London for its first international cashierless store and continues to plan and open more physical retail locations. If Amazon One continues to prove popular, it seems likely all these stores will eventually introduce palm signatures as a payment option.