Facing The Future of Buying Burgers: Cali Group Announces Face Based Payments

Cali Group brings naked payments to hamburgers with the announcement of a face-based payment pilot program at CaliBurger, its operating subsidiary and proof of concept Quick Serve Restaurant in Pasadena, California. The customer will be able to pay for their burgers, shakes, or fries without swiping a credit card, and their face will be used to verify the transaction.

You Want Security With That?

The CaliBurger facial recognition system requires a two-step authentication process where in addition to being on camera, the customer will also need to enter a three-digit CVV number from their credit card in order to process their transaction. Looking ahead, Cali Group looks to eliminate the CVV step in the future after gaining confidence from its customers.

A face-based loyalty login has been used at the burger chain’s large format self order kiosks since late 2017, but now, in addition to accessing their loyalty account by looking at the camera, they can purchase items powered by NEC retail solutions.

“The positive customer reaction to face based loyalty login at the kiosks encouraged us to quickly deploy face based payments at the kiosks,” said John Miller, CEO of Cali Group. “To our knowledge, this is the first time in America that customers in a retail environment can pay without needing a physical or digital wallet.”  

California Dreamin’

Cali Group is known for its C-Vision platform which ties together software products developed by Cali Group’s affiliated companies to enable an entire restaurant to be controlled and operated from one tablet. The new face-based payments are also part of other novel technological initiatives like robotics, including a hamburger flipping robot aptly named Flippy.

Cali Group plans to roll out the face payment method to CaliBurger’s global locations if customers are pleased and respond positively to the face based payments.

January 30, 2018 – Susan Stover