Non-Retail Firms Launch Biometric Tools Amid Consumer Interest

Biometric authentication methods have expanded into multiple applications in recent years, from online payments to mobile devices to banking transactions or facial identification for security.

Nearly half of online shoppers in the United States already use biometric authentication methods for purchasing online, and around 15% said they are interested in doing so in the future, PYMNTS Intelligence found. With this level of adoption, many companies have identified biometric systems as a business opportunity and are embracing it to foster eCommerce sales beyond retail products or financial transactions.

PYMNTS Intelligence’s latest research study in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), “Tracking the Digital Payments Takeover: Biometric Authentication in the Age of Mobile,” explores what consumers expect from biometrics and what drives them to use this technology in their shopping.

Entersekt Chief Strategy Officer Dewald Nolte shared his view on the broader adoption of biometric systems in an interview with PYMNTS posted this month.

“People are getting used to logging into their favorite apps on their smartphones using biometrics daily, … and those [kinds] of wallets using biometrics to activate that payment [are] fairly well adopted in the market,” he said.

Nolte explained that as biometric authentication adoption enters the mainstream and scales across use cases, eCommerce payments are prime candidates for widespread biometric adoption.

“There are a number of solutions in the market, and they are working sufficiently well that they’re mainstream,” he said.

One of these applications was launched by Mercedes Pay in September and uses biometrics to drive commerce in the car. The solution, developed in partnership with Mastercard, allows German drivers to make digital payments directly from the car using their fingerprint at several service stations across the country.

The deal makes Mercedes-Benz the first car brand in the world to integrate Mastercard’s payment technology into its vehicles.

Also within the automotive industry, Swedish biometrics company Fingerprints is working with an automotive supplier to integrate its iris recognition technology into Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS).

“We see an increasing interest from automotive companies in the benefits of biometrics, for example in authenticating in-car payment system transactions,” the company said in July.

Beyond retail and automotive, players in other industries are exploring biometric solutions to enhance customers’ payment experiences. For instance, casual dining chain Steak ’n Shake is deploying pay-by-face technology at select restaurants and plans to expand the tool to 300 of its establishments around the world.

Further expansion of biometric systems for payments across applications and industries may arrive in the coming years, as nearly 53% of U.S. online shoppers said they would be very likely to use these systems if more merchants accepted them. The number of merchants, financial institutions and non-retail players embracing biometric technology is increasing accordingly.