People shop at the newly opened Amazon Go Store on May 07, 2019 in New York City. The cashier-less store, the first of this type of store, called Amazon Go, accepts cash and is the 12th such store in the United States located at Brookfield Place in downtown New York.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Technology giant Amazon is working to allow customers to connect their credit card information to their hands, so that they can scan for purchases with their palms at checkout areas in physical stores, people familiar with the project told The Wall Street Journal.
While Amazon’s plan is in the early stages, the company has reportedly begun working with Visa on testing out the terminals, and has discussed the project with Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Synchrony Financial.
The company previously filed a patent for a “non-contact biometric identification system” that features a “hand scanner” to produce a picture of a person’s palm.
The news offers a look into Amazon’s ideas on transforming the way people shop in brick-and-mortar stores, and how it could work with credit card companies to further integrate itself into people’s financial lives.
The company already has major plans to expand its Amazon Go stores, which allow shoppers to buy without cashiers or checkout, as well as its voice payment service called Amazon Pay.
Amazon will have to address concerns from card issuers and customers over how terminals would detect fraud and the amount of personal information the company will receive from the scans.
Data collected from the terminals would be stored on Amazon’s cloud and used to study consumers’ Amazon.com spending habits, according to The Journal.
An Amazon spokesperson declined CNBC’s request to comment.
While Amazon’s plan is in the early stages, the company has reportedly begun working with Visa on testing out the terminals, and has discussed the project with Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Synchrony Financial.