Japanese convenience store trials face and palm biometrics for checkout-free shopping

Japanese convenience store trialling checkout-free shopping with face and palm biometrics
SHOP AND GO: Customers register their face and palm to use the checkout-free store in Yokohama

The Green Leaves+ shop-and-go store in the Yokohama Techno Tower Hotel in Japan is piloting a biometrics-enabled checkout-free service that allows customers to enter the store by verifying their identity with just their face and a swipe of their palm.

To use the service, customers first register their credit card in the store’s mobile app along with their palm vein and facial recognition details

Customers can also choose to access the store by scanning a QR code displayed on the Green Leaves+ app.

Green Leaves+ is “the world’s first checkout-free store within a hotel” and “the first store in Japan open to the general public to use biometric authentication technology to verify customers’ identities,” says technology provider Zippin.

“The grab-and-go Green Leaves+ store, which sells pre-packaged food and beverages as well as fresh bento box meals, opened early this year as a pilot and customers are able to enter the store via smartphone app,” it adds.

“Customers must register their credit card information, and then enter the store with the QR code displayed on the Green Leaves+ app. 

“Customers can also use the multi-biometric authentication technology that links their palm vein and facial recognition information with the smartphone application.

“After registering this in advance, a smartphone is no longer required for entry, just a simple swipe of the palm.”

Hotel owner Koyo Group, which also operates in the healthcare sector, says it will start full-scale operation of the service in April. It adds that it is looking to use it as a model for checkout-free technology in a hospital setting, where people need 24-hour access to food and drink.

Retail giant Amazon began letting customers pay with their palms at two of its stores in Seattle, USA, in September 2020 and rolled it out to three additional stores earlier this month.

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