Amazon have announced the rollout of their palm payment device Amazon One, another of their innovative payment options aiming to make shopping more convenient and effortless for consumers.
The devices which were announced last year are making their way into several Amazon stores in the Seattle area, including Amazon Go, Amazon Go Grocery, Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star, and Amazon Pop Up. Thousands of customers have signed up for the service, and feedback has been great—customers have shared they appreciate how quick it is to enroll and use, and that its contactless nature has been helpful in our current environment.
“At Whole Foods Market, we’re always looking for new and innovative ways to improve the shopping experience for our customers. Working closely with Amazon, we’ve brought benefits like Prime member discounts, online grocery delivery and pickup, and free returns to our customers, and we’re excited to add Amazon One as a payment option beginning today. We’re starting with an initial store at Madison Broadway in Seattle and look forward to hearing what customers think as we expand this option to additional stores over time.”
– Arun Rajan, senior vice president of technology and chief technology officer, Whole Foods Market
The whole ideology behind palm payment technology is interesting. A person wouldn’t need to search around for their card or phone, they would simply place their readily available limb over the reader and pay. The fact that the device is providing a contactless way to pay during the pandemic is also a vital innovation for the high street. However, Domineering Amazon are a clear competitor to the retail industry. Knowing this, would retailers actually want to implement the hand-scanning payment system of such a prominent competitor knowing that they are ‘handing’ their business intelligence over to them? It’s clear that the device could track the purchase patterns of a customer letting Amazon advertise their own products & services accordingly.
