SnapPay Brings Naked Payments to North America

Biometrics News – Facial Recognition

SnapPay is bringing face-based naked payments to North America. The Ontario startup currently allows North American retailers to accept Alipay and WeChat Pay, and is hoping to offer even greater utility with technology that allows shoppers to pay for their goods with a simple facial recognition scan.

The company’s facial recognition solution is based on technology that has already been deployed in Asia, although the concept of naked payments will still be quite new to many North American consumers. Those interested in the system will be able to see it in action at the Retail West Show in Vancouver and the upcoming Grocery Innovations Canada show in Toronto.

“Facial recognition technology is an increasingly popular method of payment among global consumers,” said SnapPay Founder and CEO Spencer Xu. “North American merchants, particularly those with self-service kiosks, are providing an unprecedented level of convenience and speed in the checkout process.”

To use the SnapPay solution, shoppers would first need to link their face biometrics to a payment account. After that, they’d be able to complete transactions with a face scan instead of cash or card at participating retailers. The scan could also be leveraged for loyalty programs at those stores.  

While KFC China’s ‘Smile to Pay’ system is perhaps the most prominent example of face-based payment technology in retail, naked payments have slowly been gaining traction in North America. CLEAR recently introduced biometric kiosks at Citi Field in New York, while muxiPAY identifies customers with face and voice recognition.      

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October 16, 2019 – by Eric Weiss