Worldpay report finds 63% of consumers willing to use biometric authentication

Worldpay has published a new report on consumer habits that finds that shoppers are becoming more comfortable using biometrics to pay when shopping, with fingerprint payments leading the way as the most popular biometric identification method, according to a report by ComputerWeekly.com.

The study found that 63 percent of consumers want to be able to use biometrically authenticated payments when shopping, while 69 percent said they would be most open to using fingerprint recognition.

Apple announced recently that its newer phones would introduce facial recognition as a means of identification and authentication.

Nearly 25 percent of consumers said they would be comfortable purchasing items by facial recognition, 33 percent said they would be happy to pay by iris recognition, and 18 percent said they would feel comfortable paying by voice recognition in store.

“Suddenly it isn’t so scary any more,” James Frost, chief marketing officer of Worldpay, said. “Yes, it may be more secure, but actually if that means the purchasing experience is just that much more slick and that much quicker, then people are willing to embrace it.”

But as technology begins to be increasingly used in the retail world, there are still several instances where consumers would prefer to interact with a person instead of an artificial intelligence (AI) or a robot.

Older customers said they would prefer to pay a person at the end of a shopping experience, while younger consumers are more comfortable using automated payment methods to expedite the shopping process.

The report found that only 13 percent of respondents said they do not interact with employees in a store, 37 percent said they want to be able to talk to a store employee if they need something, and 35 percent said that a skilled store employee can improve the in-store experience.

Only a small percentage of consumers said they do not feel shop staff are helpful or knowledgeable about products, and 10 percent said they would prefer to use technology for self-service.

“There is still a really critical role for store employees – we’re not going to be dealing exclusively with robots in the future,” Frost said. “People still do want to be able to speak to a human being if they have a question.”

Article Topics

biometric payment system  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  identity verification  |  iris recognition  |  voice authentication