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Last week, Amazon announced plans to launch pay-by-palm technology at all Whole Foods stores by the end of this year. The Amazon One biometric technology is currently in use in 200 Whole Foods locations, Amazon Go cashier-less stores, and a number of other companies piloting these hand payments.

CivicScience revisited its data on Amazon’s use of hand-recognition payments to gauge how sentiment has shifted. Over one-quarter of U.S. adults with an opinion are at least ‘somewhat comfortable’ (27%) with using palm-to-pay (10% are ‘very comfortable’). Both of these figures are up from 2019, when 22% were at least ‘somewhat comfortable’ with the tech.

Current comfort levels for the biometric tech in general, removed from Amazon or Whole Foods associations, come in a bit lower with 24% at least ‘somewhat comfortable’ (and 7% ‘very comfortable’) – so it remains to be seen how wide its early adoption might be in other markets. 

CivicScience’s deep library of brand favorability previewed how customers of five different retailers might use pay-by-palm technology if adopted. Customers of fellow grocery giant Kroger topped the brands surveyed for likelihood to use palm payment (35% at least ‘somewhat likely’), with nearly one-third of Target shoppers not far behind. REI and Costco customers are the least bullish on pay-by-hand tech (just 21% and 25% say they’re at least ‘somewhat likely’ to use it, respectively). 

Despite the differences in adoption for select retailers, it could be a bigger hit with shoppers who already use mobile payment apps. Just over one-third of mobile payment users are at least ‘somewhat comfortable’ with pay-by-hand technology – which exceeds the Gen Pop, but not by an enormous margin. A strong majority of mobile payment users (66%) and intenders (56%) are still ‘not at all comfortable’ with the tech, so it might still face an uphill battle among shoppers who tap their device to pay.

Want to know more information about how your customers might respond to pay-by-palm technology at the checkout line? Book a meeting today.