You must have noticed that Amazon is innovating quite a lot in the industry from some time now.
If we take an example of Amazon Go which are retail stores from the company, it is the best example of innovation. Amazon Go stores from the company are a way to buy items from the stores without needing to pay as they are also named as cashless stores. In this stores, we have cameras everywhere which keep a track of items taken and placed back so it counts out which items were bought by customers.
Once the customers goes out of the store, he is charged via his Amazon account with a receipt of everything he has bought from his last visit. Now, the company is said to be looking for a new way to make payments. As per the report from Adweek, Amazon is looking to link credit and debit cards with palms of the users. So it will soon be possible to pay by just your hands at checkout without needing to take out physical cards such as credit/debit cards.
Now, we know that payment via fingerprint and facial scanning is possible right now at airport terminals and other areas. However, the tech has not gone mainstream but Amazon might make it go mainstream very soon. According to WSJ, Amazon will bring these terminals to locations where people do “lots of repeat business” such as coffee shops and quick-service restaurants.
It is also being reported that Amazon is working with Visa and Mastercard to develop these terminals and are in the process of testing them. As per a patent, these terminals will have a “non-contact biometric identification system,” which can recognize “deeper characteristics” like wrinkles and veins in palms. Basically, this seems to be an extension of the fingerprint authentication which might be insecure for payments since it is possible to fake them.
