SnapPay Merchants Can Now Accept Facial Recognition Payments

Global payments solution SnapPay announced the rollout of facial recognition payment technology for North American merchants.

SnapPay said the technology gives users greater convenience and security when shopping at mainstream retailers. Although it is based on the same tech that is available now in Asia, SnapPay is initially launching in North America to select retailers.

The technology is being demonstrated by SnapPay at the Retail Council of Canada’s Retail West Show on Wednesday (Oct. 16). Next week the company will introduce the solution at Grocery Innovations Canada (GIC) show in Toronto on Oct. 22-23. 

“Facial recognition technology is an increasingly popular method of payment among global consumers,” said Spencer Xu, CEO and founder of SnapPay. “By enabling consumers to pay with their ‘face’ North American merchants, particularly those with self-service kiosks, are providing an unprecedented level of convenience and speed in the checkout process, to a lucrative customer segment that increasingly demands it.”

Analysis firm Juniper Research predicts growth in excess of over 2,500 percent in the mobile biometrics space and that it will authorize $2 trillion transactions in 2023. 

The consulting and advisory firm Mordor Intelligence projects that the facial-recognition market will double to $9 billion between 2018 and 2024.

“Retailers in Canada are eager to explore technologies that will help improve the retail experience for their customers. SnapPay is a very interesting new player offering new solutions in the Canadian payments ecosystem. We’re looking forward to being first to see this new technology in use at Retail West,” said Mary Markou, Senior Director, Sponsorship Retail Council of Canada.

In March, SnapPay teamed up with Alipay to bring the digital payment method to locations of Canadian Chinese grocery store chain FoodyMart. To use the digital payment method, consumers can use a mobile app for a quick-response (QR) code scan and merchants receive payments in U.S. or Canadian dollars. 

“North American retailers gain access to billions of untapped potential revenue by simply offering their customers the option to pay with the mobile apps and currency that they’re familiar with,” SnapPay Chief Growth Officer Chris Renton said in a March press release.