Consumers today have become accustomed to speed: Amazon allows one-click purchases that arrive no more than two business days later; Uber provides taxi services with payments embedded into the experience; and TikTok viewers can buy products directly from the influencers they follow.
That same evolution is happening in retail, with customers looking to get through checkout lines faster. In fact, 77% of shoppers prefer self-checkout to staffed checkout because it is faster, according to NCR Voyix's 2025 Commerce Experience Report. Gen Z and Millennial shoppers led adoption, with 63% and 45%, respectively, saying they preferred self-checkout.
More self-checkout is coming to stores as expectations shift, and that self-checkout technology is getting a face-lift. Digital commerce provider NCR Voyix is merging radio frequency identification (RFID) – a wireless system that uses radio waves to identify objects and people – and computer vision – a type of AI that allows computers to recognize and understand images and videos – to the self-checkout experience.
"All those are in production today for us on our end points," NCR Voyix Executive Vice President and President of Retail Eric Schoch, said. "I can just come up, put all my stuff down, and if it's got an RFID, it gets picked up."
Facial-recognition biometrics are a natural extension of that experience, Schoch said. "Then you look, and your biometrics are recognized by PopID and you've already paid. And then you walk out. We demonstrated that [in 2024].
"Think about multi-signal and then biometric integration to form less and less friction at the point of checkout," he said.
Oracle is also exploring how biometrics can speed up the checkout process in its retail business.
"Biometrics is an ongoing thing for us," said Paul Woodward, global vice president of retail product at Oracle.
"Everybody moves in different ways. That's why we are still hesitant about biometrics, [we're] still watching the market, trying to understand how it'll be used," he said. "The reality is it will be used."
Payment terminal manufacturers such as
But while face-scanning technology is gaining momentum,
"The palm-based biometric solution is a crucial component of our overall biometrics strategy," said Jean-Marc Thienpont, global head of omnichannel and biometrics for
Ingenico is also hoping to be a first mover in palm-scanning biometric authorization.
"Today, what you're seeing is people want a simple experience. They want to be able to choose how they pay, but they want the experience to be fast, to be enjoyable, as much as payment can be," said Ingenico Chief Technology Officer Patrick Blanc. "That's what we're thinking of: How can we provide the tools to build the best experience? Biometrics is a good way to add a level of security and build this different type of experience. We could understand how old you are and if you're allowed to play the lottery or buy alcohol."
But consumer and merchant adoption of biometric-authorization will likely be slow-moving, similar to the way that chip and pin adoption was slow to catch on in the U.S.
"I think the biometric question becomes one of security. I see the opportunity for big players like Apple and Amazon more than startups or merchant specific [companies]," said Tony DeSanctis, a senior director at Cornerstone Advisors. "I think people are always looking for ways to do things easier, so I imagine adoption will be there on the consumer side. The question will be the merchant's side. "As witnessed by how long it took to implement chip cards, I think it could be similarly slow," he said.
