By Jo Best, 8 March 2006 15:35
NEWS
Three Oxford branches of the Co-op will be asking their customers to give them their fingers this week, with the announcement the supermarket will now be accepting biometric payment.
Shoppers will be able to link their fingerprint with credit card or debit card information and verify payment by pressing their digit against a reader.
Users can sign up to the Pay By Touch system via the internet or in store, and the service is free. Bill Laird, COO of retail, Midcounties Co-op, said the launch had already generated a lot of interest, with customers keen to sign up to the biometric payment system.
The Co-op is trialling the system in response to customers' anxieties over having to remember various PIN numbers after the deadline for compulsory chip and PIN usage passed in February.
The first Oxford store to trial the biometrics system has reported that paying by fingerprint has initially proved faster than entering a PIN.
Laird told silicon.com the Co-op chose fingerprint reading over other biometrics as it is "the least squeamish and the most acceptable... other technologies are still at the proving stage", he said. Laird added that a small number of customers had expressed concerns about whether their fingerprints would be made available to outside agencies.
The pilot will last 16 weeks and customers will be asked for their feedback during the trial period. If customers are positive about the biometric payment, the Co-op will look into making the technology a permanent fixture in the stores.
A larger rollout is not yet planned. Laird said the stores will share the results of research and findings with other Co-ops. "It's up to them if they decide to use it," he said.
A number of stores in the US already have Pay by Touch technology installed, with around two million users paying using their biometric every week.
One supermarket said the technology had made it into the stores because of customer demand - and one man had even driven 400 miles to use the biometric payment system.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. Bob E
This implies that the store is holding all the customers' card details, presumably including the PIN, to allow onward verification with their banks. What assurances do (can?!) the store give about the security of this data? Is it safer than the banks' own systems? I don't think I'll be queueing to sign up just yet, thank you!
2. anonymous
This is a fantastic idea and should be rolled out every where...
To stop the wife from shopping all I have to do is remove her finger.
3. anonymous
So - consider the cook, welder, building worker, or anybody else who is liable to have their outer skin damaged by heat, abrasion, chemicals etc. will the be able to shop with their now damaged fingers.
(This being a concerned inquiry from somebody who is still trying to remove the remnants of the window sealing 'spray foam' he got on his fingers last weekend when the supplied gloves were dissolved by the foam
4. Nick T
Cheap new devices exist which even read smooth fingers (using radar). Why are co-op excluding potential customers?