DigitalPersona Provides Fingerprint Solution for Chinese Fashion Retailer

Biometric identity verification solutions provider DigitalPersona announced on Wednesday that Chinese fashion retailer New Look has selected a Point-of-Sale system that uses DigitalPersona fingerprint technology.

The announcement follows a successful trial run at six of New Look’s stores this past February. The retailer says it will now expand their use of biometrics in 16 of its stores by the end of the year, as well as longer-range plans to equip 100 stores by 2017.

New Look says it initially chose biometric technology as an alternative to passwords for improving time and attendance accuracy, only to discover that it significantly enhanced the company’s loss prevention and customer service.

Each New Look store is equipped with two to four POS terminals depending on the size of the store, which are shared by its employees.

In the past, employees could potentially to clock in for each other, increasing the risk of payroll fraud.

Prior to adopting fingerprint biometrics, New Look implemented six-digit passwords to enhance security. But these passwords were difficult for employees to remember and ultimately had to be changed every 90 days to meet security standards.

As a result, the IT department at New Look’s UK-based headquarters saw a small increase in the number of calls to reset forgotten passwords.

DigitalPersona has resolved this issue with its fingerprint solution, and now, New Look employees clock in and log on to the POS terminals using their fingerprints, which offers a more secure alternative to passwords. In addition, store managers and deputy managers must also use their fingerprints to approve returns, discounts and overrides.

The use of biometrics to confirm positive identity ultimately gives retailers a business advantage.
“DigitalPersona’s biometric solutions are assisting retailers worldwide in their efforts to reduce fraud, keep loss prevention rates low and improve customer service, ” says Richard Agostinelli, DigitalPersona president and CEO. “We’re very pleased with the success that New Look, through their partnership with Cegid Group, has experienced with our technology and look forward to their continued growth.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  DigitalPersona  |  fingerprint recognition  |  POS  |  time and attendance