French Biometric Payments Pilot Gets A Thumbs Up

The French have always been keen on revolutions: especially one that involves reviving biometric payments.

Last October, French supermarket chain Auchan and DIY store Leroy Merlin, commenced a six-month trial that allowed shoppers to pay for groceries with just a fingerprint scan. The pilot took place in Villeneuve-d’Ascq and Angouleme in the north of France, reported The Telegraph.  During the six-month period the fingerprint technology attracted over 900 customers who conducted over 5,000 payment transactions. The figures prove a high adoption rate and successful trial, but this wasn’t the first time biometric scanning entered the payments sector.

What changed in the last decade, and why are consumers showing enthusiasm this time around?

According to Businessweek, San Francisco-based company Pay By Touch was founded in 2002 and launched a similar biometric payment device across the United States’ grocery chain, Albertson’s, in March 2006. Pay By Touch installed the fingerprint scanner to help decrease waiting times at the checkout, while also trying to save retailers’ money. Customers linked their credit or debit card with their accounts to make payments at the point of sale.

Pay By Touch even experimented with (at this time) the not-yet perfected program of customizing individual store-offers. The company proposed the program would operate through logging the shoppers’ history purchases under their fingerprint data.

After only a couple years on the market, customers across the United States were surprised to find the service had suddenly vanished.  News broke and informed consumers that Pay By Touch was no longer in service. The company was forced to shut down due to a lack of biometric transactions and an insufficient customer following.

Why does National Security, the developers of the French biometric product, believe they’ll have better luck with their shoppers?

“Consumers are ready for this new type of payment method,” stated Cedric Hozanne, the CEO of Natural Security.

Hozanne’s statement gets a thumbs-up and may illustrate the large difference between the fingerprint payment launches: consumers were ready and a strong interest existed during the time of the French launch.

 A recent survey published by WorldPay,reported that 49 percent of European consumers were eager to see biometric payments emerge as a payment option in retail stores.

Buisnessweek’s article reported that customers were nervous about Pay By Touch’s technology because it required more personal biological data. Despite the company’s effort to communicate the device’s security and reliability, customers were still slow to respond. The technology was introduced too soon into the market, and there were no US laws that protected consumer privacy, which was a huge obstacle for adoption.

However, times have changed since then, and so has the market along with the consumer mentality. France’s successful trial indicates, along with WorldPay’s findings, indicate that consumers may be ready for meaningful adoption of biometric payments.

To read the full story at The Telegraph click here, or to read the full story at Businessweek click here.