Are You Ready to Pay by Palm? New Payment Processing Technology Comes to Texas

Perhaps none of us ever thought that one day, we’d be able to pay for our groceries just by scanning our palms. But now, the technology that makes that possible is here and Austin is the first area to sample it.

Amazon is the company behind this innovative payment option through its product Amazon One, a technology that allows consumers to make payments using their palm signatures. As a business owner, it’s important to stay up to date on the latest payment processing technology and ensure that high-risk merchant account providers offer options that best benefit your business.

What We Know About Amazon One

• Amazon acquired the Whole Foods store at the Arbor Trails shopping center in South Austin, Texas in 2017 and the company chose this location to be the first to accept the “Pay by Palm” payment option. 

Consumers from other Whole Foods locations in Austin will also get the same payment capability over the next few weeks. This will make Austin the first region outside Seattle that has Amazon One payment options in all of its Whole Foods stores.

• To use Amazon One, a customer needs to enroll in the service, scan one or both of their palms, and link those to their credit or debit card. This unique concept utilizes Amazon vision technology where the system selects distinct identifiers in a customer’s palm to use as their signature. 

Once the customer is enrolled and verified in the Amazon One service, they can leave their credit or debit card at home and just use their palm over the Amazon One device to pay for their groceries at Whole Foods. 

It doesn’t only reduce the occurrence of fraud, but it also protects the interests of consumers since they don’t need to bring their cards when grocery shopping.

• After the Whole Foods acquisition, Amazon has been constantly looking for ways to offer a better shopping experience to its consumers with the help of technology. 

According to Leandro Balbinot, Whole Foods’ chief technology officer and senior vice president, “We are always looking for new ways to satisfy and delight our customers and offer convenient options to improve the shopping experience.” This is on top of all the benefits that Amazon customers get to enjoy like discounts at Whole Foods as well as Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh delivery and curbside pickup using an Amazon account.

Promising Future for Pay by Palm Technology

While some skeptics have raised concerns over the security of the “Pay by Palm” option by Amazon One, the company is confident that this technology will be one of the best payment options on the market once it is fully launched around the country. 

Amazon has been testing this option in the Seattle area Whole Foods store and now it is slowly launching the technology across different regions, starting with Austin.

Thi Luu, director of product management for Amazon Physical Retail Technology said: “We built Amazon One to offer a quick, reliable, and secure way for people to identify themselves or authorize a transaction while moving seamlessly through their day.” As a merchant, this will be an added feature aside from what high-risk merchant account providers currently offer.