Major banking app trials pay-by-face to speed customers through checkouts

Consumers are set to come face to face – fairly literally – with the latest attempt to send them through checkouts faster.

The past decade or so has seen a raft of changes in this everyday occurrence take place – from contactless payments and self-service stations to overhead cameras allowing shoppers to walk out of a store immediately after picking up their items.

Now, bank and payments firm Revolut are implementing a pay-by-face trial, using the facial recognition approach that customers habitually use to unlock the app on their phones.

Initially, the trial will roll out at just one store in three locations around London.

Coffee shop Kiss the Hippo will have the facial recognition payment option in their stores at Bloomsbury, Soho and Chelsea, across 24 to 26 September. To encourage use of the feature, shoppers will be able to buy a coffee for £1 for doing so.

In practice, those with Revolut accounts have to first opt-in via the app on their phone. When in the shop and ready to pay, the terminal is intended to match their face to already existing selfie ID which usually allows app unlock, with the data then not stored by the merchant themselves.

Then it’s a case of users needing to “simply glance at the terminal to pay,” say Revolut.

Alex Codina of Revolut Business said: “We’ve all had that moment of panic at the till when a terminal freezes, your phone is at 1 per cent battery or your hands are too full to dig out your card. Shopping should be effortless, not a test of your patience. You can leave your wallet in your pocket, skip the awkward wait, and pay for your morning coffee with just a glance. It's simple, completely secure, and turns a chore into something seamless.”

Research from the firm claims modern shoppers have “zero patience for till and checkout lag” and the data suggests Gen Z consumers are five times more likely to walk out of a venue than Boomers, if there are issues with payment.

There have been issues with some of the more recent attempts to change checkout and shopping behaviour.

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Amazon Fresh implemented the walk-out-without-paying approach in some shops, with monitoring software later automatically sending through a receipt for items picked up in-store, but announced a year ago they would close their till-free shops after less than five years in operation.

Other merchants, payment providers and device manufacturers have created or built in different ways to shop and complete the payment process, including via watches and phones. Tesco received criticism for their so-called VAR-style overhead cameras which flashed up errors, while even self service checkouts have been suggested to cause longer queues and contribute toward theft.