Pay with your face
Last week we reported that X5 had been working with Sberbank and Visa to launch a “Pay with a Glance” service at self-service point-of-sale terminals.
Currently available in 52 Perekrestok supermarkets. A biometric identification is used, which is based on the innovation laboratory technology of X5 and the VisionLabs solutions.
It is scheduled to be rolled out at 150 locations in Perekrestok by the end of March. Several Moscow Pyaterochka proximity stores will follow in April.
The exact schedule for further scaling and implementation will depend on the results of this first phase of the project. Overall, the biometric payment technology could be expanded to around 3,000 X5 branches by the end of 2021.
After scanning their purchases at a self-made self-service checkout, customers can choose an option that allows them to pay at a glance, remove their mask for a second and look into a 3D camera.
The option is currently only available to buyers who are Sberbank customers. The biometric data are stored in the FI and transmitted in encrypted form. No other companies working on the project have access to it.
Igor Shekhterman, CEO of X5 Retail Group, commented: “In 2020 the first place we introduced this technology commercially was a Moscow coffee shop chain.”
“The start of the project in one of Russia’s largest retail chains shows that our drive to develop innovative payment methods is shared by our partners, who are just as eager to introduce them as we are.”
He added, “You don’t need cash, bank cards or smartphones to use the service. All you have to do is ‘present’ your face and the payment is posted.”
“This is a fast, convenient and safe technology of the future and we are among the first to introduce it in Russia and worldwide.”
He concluded: “I am convinced that contactless biometric payment solutions will very soon be used universally and that this payment method will become as common as paying with a bank card or smartphone.”
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