Carrefour has enabled facial recognition as a way to verify payments in the UAE.
Franchised by Majid Al Futtaim in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the retailer Announce On Friday (February 10), it has partnered with Network International and biometrics company PopID to launch the latter’s “Face Pay” verification platform in the country.
Customers at Carrefour’s stores in Deira and Amsaf can now pay for their purchases by simply smiling at a payment terminal without reaching for a bank card or mobile phone, the company said in a release. Consumers can sign up for the service online through the Carrefour mobile app or website, it added.
While the identification and verification process has improved, acceptance is still handled by Network International, Carrefour’s long-standing payment partner in the country.
“Carrefour is a leader in introducing new technologies to enhance the customer experience, while finding solutions that remove friction,” Bernardo PeloiroMajid Futtaim Retail’s GCC Chief Operating Officer said in a press release. “Facial verification will make it easier and more convenient for our customers to efficiently check out — without having to reach for their wallet.”
john miller“In the U.S. and Japan, we’ve proven that allowing consumers to link Face Pay to loyalty accounts and payment methods can drive revenue, speed up ordering and checkout, drive loyalty engagement and reduce fraud,” said PopID’s CEO.
“We are delighted to be working with Carrefour and Network International to implement the platform in grocery stores for the first time in the region,” he added.
While the latest connection may be PopID’s first foray into Middle Eastern grocery, it’s first via Partner with Visa Go back to April 2022.
In an interview with PYMNTS, Miller said that technologies such as Face Pay expand the use case for biometric authentication for consumers beyond mobile devices, which is currently the area the technology is most familiar with.
To replicate the success of mobile biometrics, he said: “Our goal is to be like Apple Pay, just without the phone.”
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