As consumers get more comfortable with cashless payment methods as the pandemic enters its second year, Amazon is launching a new biometric payment method called Amazon One at Seattle Whole Foods stores. With Amazon One, customers associate a credit card with their palm print, and wave their hands to pay instead of fumbling with a card or cash.

Why should we care?
The Amazon One palm payment launch at Whole Foods represents the first wide rollout of the biometric technology after the company tested the capability in a pilot last fall. Customers associate their palm prints with credit cards by registering them at dedicated kiosks. It will be interesting to see how quickly this technique catches on, amid heightened enthusiasm around touchless payment methods. Of course, customers will need to be comfortable with the megaretailer collecting palm print information as part of its (already vast) repository of customer data. Amazon reportedly will start rolling out the feature at the Madison Broadway Whole Foods in Seattle, and will expand it to seven other Whole Foods stores in the Seattle area over the next few months. Amazon One doesn’t eliminate cashiers as its Just Walk Out cashierless technology suite does, and thus won’t impact jobs at Whole Foods, the retailer says.