Biometrics For The Greater Good | UPDATED

Pay By Touch at The FMI Show + Marketechnics 2007 - McCormick Place West Expansion, Chicago, Illinois. Image Credit: ecj - Symblogogy - Copyright 2007

Biometrics For The Greater Good
Pay By Touch ID Delivers Discounts, Rewards Recognition, Credit, & More
(UPDATED At Bottom)

Consumer services has become a pretty arduous process over the years.

In order for the average consumer to take advantage of the systems and processes that support loyal and local shopping, one had to scan the local paper for coupons and clip them, carry a host of store issued loyalty verification instruments (key fobs, cards, “speedpass” RFID tags, & etc.), then get out and shop … Oh! … and don’t forget the wallet.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be recognized as if all of the stores knew every shopper by name, you know ... as if one were living in an idealized small town in “RFD” America?

One would leave the house with a list of things to buy and that’s it! No coupons and the time invested to collect them, no store cards through which one qualifies for an additional discount off of the purchase, and no wallet to carry cash and credit card by which to pay for the items one needed.

This world view scenario is available here and now and it is a world envisioned by Pay By Touch that utilizes fingerprint biometrics for the greater good!

SmartShop Express station aids in converting customers to the benefits of the Pay By Touch process. Image Credit: ecj - Symblogogy - Copyright 2007

Excerpts from the Pay By Touch website and press releases –

Pay By Touch ID Delivers Discounts, Rewards Recognition, Credit, & More
Compiled & Edited by Symblogogy

Pay By Touch is the leading biometric authentication network for loyalty and payments, and the only company that integrates biometric authentication, payments, personalized marketing, and payment processing. The company's mission is to liberate consumers through biometrics and beyond by providing the most secure, convenient, and cost-effective electronic transaction solutions available.

Pay By Touch is a free service that allows you to pay for purchases and access loyalty discounts simply by placing your finger on a sensor when you check out. Your finger links you, and only you, to your accounts – completely eliminating the need to carry cards, checks or cash.

it's safe
Your finger is unique to you, which means only you can access your financial accounts. The Pay By Touch service helps protect you from physical or identity theft. Because there’s nothing to carry, there’s nothing to be lost or stolen.

it's fast and easy
Enroll once and use it anywhere! No writing checks. No cards to swipe. No fumbling with cash. No need to show your ID.

it's private
Because you don’t have to present your cards, check or ID when you pay, no one can see your account information. Your information is securely stored and will not be sold to third parties.

it's free
The Pay By Touch service is always free and there are no hidden fees.

... automatic rewards
Free yourself from all those rewards cards and keyfobs. Your savings and rewards are automatically applied when you check out.
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Pay By Touch SmartShop Express In-Store Coupon Claiming Demo - Video Credit: ecj - Symblogogy - Copyright 2007

SmartShop™ Service Alliance Announcement Press Release -

Biometric Pioneer’s Personalized Marketing Service Delivers the Right Offer to the Right Shopper at the Right Time
Shop n’ Save, Foodtown and Leading Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturers are Among Early Adopters
2007 FMI SHOW+MARKETECHNICS & SAN FRANCISCO, CA – (May 7, 2007)

To facilitate rapid consumer adoption and give merchants maximum flexibility, Pay By Touch has added a card-based option to its biometric SmartShop™ service. SmartShop, powered by Pay By Touch, gives shoppers customized offers on the products they buy most when they enter the store – before they shop.

Pay By Touch, the leader in biometric payment and personalized marketing, is offering card-based SmartShop in addition to the biometric SmartShop service, which launched at NRF in January, 2007. SmartShop provides merchants and consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) with an unprecedented return on investment (ROI) by enabling them to deliver the right offer to the right shopper at the right time – both in-store and online.

John Costello, President, Consumer and Retail - "At Pay By Touch, we understand that each retailer is unique. Card-based SmartShop enables merchants to immediately engage their best shoppers by letting them use their existing loyalty cards to get personalized offers,” said John Rogers, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Pay By Touch. “SmartShop offers unparalleled, automated targeting based on preferences in each particular store. There is no better way for merchants and manufacturers to reach their targets." - Image Credit: ecj - Symblogogy - Copyright 2007

Research shows that 70 percent of buying decisions are made in-store, and that less than one percent of grocery store coupons are ever redeemed . As a result, millions of marketing dollars are wasted every year. SmartShop turns every shopper into a uniquely qualified marketing lead and delivers value to consumers, merchants and manufacturers alike.

SmartShop enhances retailers’ existing loyalty programs by delivering added value to their most important customers. It also provides a robust loyalty solution for retailers who do not yet have a program in place. Best of all, SmartShop ‘learns’ from each shopping trip to generate the next set of relevant rewards.
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Card-based SmartShop has been implemented by Shop ‘n Save stores in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, as well as Foodtown stores in New York and New Jersey. These merchants will migrate to biometric SmartShop, and adopt Pay By Touch’s biometric payment solution, to let shoppers identify themselves, pay for purchases and redeem rewards with the simple touch of a finger.

“We are extremely pleased with the SmartShop service, which is branded ‘Shop ‘n Save Personalized Perks’ in three of our Pittsburgh-area stores,” said Greg Hartley, Owner of three Shop 'n Save locations. “The service is a huge hit with our shoppers, with kiosks in each store receiving more than 300 visits a day. We are excited to continue using the program and we are looking forward to seeing the kiosk in other Shop 'n Save stores."

Early results reveal the value of the SmartShop service. These merchants can experience:

•Twenty to 50 percent shopper adoption of SmartShop

•Eight to 12 percent sales lift among customers using SmartShop

•A 25 to 30 percent reduction in advertising and direct mail printing and distribution costs

SC Johnson Among Early CPG Adopters

Already, several leading CPGs have joined the program, including SC Johnson and more. These companies are leveraging the SmartShop platform to deliver personalized, highly relevant coupons and deepen their relationships with consumers. With SmartShop, CPGs can experience:
•Twenty percent+ sales lift

•Four to five times greater redemption rates than traditional FSIs

•Twenty to 50 percent reduction in marketing costs per unit sold at retail

•A significant reduction in handling costs

How SmartShop Works:

1.) When shoppers enter the store, they simply scan their loyalty card at the SmartShop kiosk to get personalized offers based on their purchase history.

2.) Shoppers receive an 8 ½ x 11 print-out with 16 customized offers on the products they buy most, and then head into the aisles to shop.

3.) Shoppers scan their loyalty card at check-out to redeem their offers. They do not need to bring the print-out to check-out; no paper coupons are required.

SmartShop gives merchants customer-based metrics and accurate data that improves the efficacy of marketing efforts. It is easy to implement, with a Web-based management system for algorithmic campaign creation and real-time targeting. The service provides robust analytics to make reporting and account settlement both easy and accurate.
Reference Here>>

UPDATE - March 24, 2008

Pay By Touch Shuts Down Tranaction Processing ... Goes Out Of Business

After filing for Chapter Eleven debt restructuring in December of 2007, the hope was that Pay By Touch would be able to continue its business of biometric identification aided transaction processing for is portfolio of strong and happy clients.

Sadly, today PBT shuts down its ability to care for its customers.

This excerpted from the Progressive Grocer -

Pay By Touch Shuts Down all Biometrics
Progressive Grocer - March 24, 2008

Solidus Networks, Inc., the San Francisco-based biometric solutions company that did business as Pay By Touch, ceased processing biometric transactions on behalf of its retailer customers and consumer membership last week, a move it said was due to "lack of funding and current market conditions."

Pay By Touch's biometric payment systems were being used by dozens of retailers, including Pathmark, Piggly Wiggly, Jewel-Osco and Cub Foods. Last year it released its Smart Shop offering, first developed and piloted at independent grocer Green Hills, and then later launched at high-profile independent Dorothy Lane Markets.

On December 14, 2007, Solidus had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Solidus said as part of its planned restructuring it determined it could no longer support the biometric authentication and payment system. Other non-biometric Solidus Networks business units will continue operating, it said.

The company's move to pull the rug out from under the program came as a surprise to some, considering the successful track record it apparently with retailers.

At Dayton, Ohio-based Dorothy Lane, the Smart Shop loyalty and payment service was used in transactions totaling 24 percent of sales, just two weeks after it launched in July.
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Meanwhile, Pay By Touch's Web site currently displays just one active page, with a statement from the company that reads in part: "Solidus Networks extends its sincere gratitude to the shoppers, merchants, vendors, investors, partners, and employees who have been supporting the company's vision since its first biometric payment transaction in 2002."

Observers commenting on a story that ran on the Web site of The Wall Street Journal about the demise Pay By Touch suggested that the business, not the technology, was the problem.

"I'm an ex-employee, and despite the eventual demise of the company, there were some interesting things learned about mainstream biometrics for the consumer," noted one online poster.

"None of the management of the company had any notion of businesses that wage world class technology competitions, as did the famous Silicon Valley successes," commented another. "The management all came from a so-called 'solution' business, where technology is secondary and services are the identity. Contrary to belief, the biometric technology was not designed in house. They really had nothing to compete with. So the company had no identity and was doomed to failure from the outset."
Reference Here>>

At Symblogogy, we believe that a biometric pay paradigm as pioneered by Pay By Touch for retail and other type of transactions is not dead ... just in delay.

Form Factor Is The Measure Of All Mobility

The handheld 'cool thing.' - Call it an unfettered kiosk designed to get shoppers to pick it up, play with it, and, most importantly, receive personalized marketing messages. Image Credit: Motorola

Form Factor Is The Measure Of All Mobility

New product configuration may prove to be a big hit and not just because an industry leader makes the introduction.

The marriage of Motorola and Symbol Technologies had its logical understandings and now that the first year is nearly in the books … the introduction of the MC17 shows how the mobility lineage may actually bring solutions to the next level of commercial usefulness.

Designed to become the technology version of a personal shopper, the MC17 becomes dedicated, when programmed properly, and in tune to the shopper’s needs when the shopper swipes his or her loyalty card. From then on through the shopping experience, the hand held computer uses the shopper’s stored database information to inform and assist the shopper in finding specials based upon the shopper’s personal shopping habits.

The customer also aides in the shopping experience by using the MC17 as the ultimate in self checkout. Each item the customer puts into the cart is scanned by the customer which, when done properly, will speed up the checkout process.

MC17 - A tool to assist in the personal shopping experience. Image Credit: Motorola

Excerpts from Jupiter Online Media’s, internet.com –

Kiosks You Can Carry
By Erin Joyce - Enterprise - June 5, 2007

Motorola calls it the next generation retail solution with enterprise mobility technology. But the company just wants shoppers to call its latest wireless device a cool thing, and use it.

Either way, Motorola's latest foray into enterprise technology products is in full swing with the third-generation release of its MC17 mobile computer device for retailers.
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If that approach helps drive more sales, then those happy retailers are also happy customers of Motorola.

The MC17 symbolizes another extension of the self-service stations that are growing more popular at retail outlets such as grocery stores and pharmacies, said Chris Ciervo, a product manager for Motorola.

Unlike stationary scanners in retail stores these days, this device is a handheld kiosk that does more than provide look-up information in the store. It also sends affinity information to participating customers when they swipe their shopping card next to the scanner.

"What we're seeing today is a little more of this emphasis" in new store layouts, he told internetnews.com. "It can be in a rack when customers walk into the store. Then, they can pick them up, scan their loyalty information, then start their shopping process.

It's also available to do things like stock lookup, inventory and to help with line-busting," a term used by retailers to help break up long lines at traditional checkouts in stores.

In a sense, the self-service checkout functionality more shoppers experience has now moved into the store aisles, Ciervo noted.

"It's actually doing all that scanning while they shop. The value to the retailers is that, instead of when they check out, they have a point of activity to push various forms of content down to the consumer as they're putting items in their baskets. Those are the cross-selling opportunities. So there are potentially greater opportunities for a larger basket size."

The target markets for the product include retail environments such as mass merchandisers, grocery department stores and pharmacies.

The twist on this launch are the contextual suggestions the device collects and pumps out (assuming the person is participating in an affinity program) when the shopper is actually traipsing the aisles. In addition, the MC17 can be used for gift registry in department and specialty stores.
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It's not Motorola's only move to gain market share with businesses. Last November, it snapped up privately-held Good Technology in order to spice up mobile applications for business users, most notably for its Q smartphone.

The MC17 deploys the Windows CE 5.0 operating system and uses the PocketBrowser from Motorola to enable developers to build mobile applications for enterprises, such as printing and bar code scanning. And, of course, it's compatible with prior Symbol systems too.

So is Motorola concerned that some customers might walk off with the devices? Not at all. Motorola's Seldon Safir, a director of product marketing for the company's enterprise mobility division, said the device would emit beeps to let the store know it has left the building.

Then again, RFID tags are also a specialty of Motorola's Symbol division. Look for the kiosks to deploy more uses of those in the future, too.
Reference Here>>

The MC17 is set to be priced at $995 and should prove to be a real hit for the retailer that has a solid interactive vision for its implementation. Only problem is ... it needs a catchy name ... any suggestions?

Corporate Culture (and technology) Gone Wrong

Albertson's - Coming of age in an internet world. Image Credit: W=UH

Corporate Culture (and technology) Gone Wrong

Let’s be honest … when a company invests improperly in technology that would have allowed them to compete on an equal footing with the other players in the marketplace the worst things can happen.

Albertson’s never had a clue that after it purchased Lucky Stores that it now had to finally jump into the “discount club” fray along with Ralph’s and Vons. The management put off the decision for the longest time but finally had to submit to the competitive pressure.

The problem was that they bought off on technology that was "on the cheap"! The loyalty/discount cards they had purchased placed the unique barcode information for each customer on the surface of the plastic that the card or key-fob was made of … as opposed to having the image embedded or otherwise protected by the plastic cover.

The barcode information began to rub off immediately upon issue and after awhile became unreadable by the barcode reader. This left the job to the cashier who had to manually enter the data in order to allow the customer to accrue loyalty points and achieve a discount.

It gets worse – Albertson’s will now totally abandon the “discount/loyalty” program with the excuse (spin) that they are opening up the discounts to everyone … sound familiar? It should. That is what they told all of the shoppers as the excuse as to why they did not have a loyalty program … just after they had purchased Lucky Stores.

Really, this is about corporate culture and how it can go all wrong.

"IF KEYS ARE FOUND, PLEASE RETURN TO NEAREST ALBERTSON'S STORE" - Image Credit: This Is Broken

News Item from The Salt Lake Tribune -

No more 'Preferred Card' at Albertsons
The Salt Lake Tribune - Article Last Updated: 06/20/2007 01:39:55 PM MDT

Posted: 1:27 PM - Albertsons stores are ending their "Preferred Card" program at 78 Southwest stores.

The Arizona Republic reports today that instead, the chain will offer discounted items to everyone.

"Our objective is to give all the consumers in the marketplace the same great deals irregardless of having to have a loyalty card," said Bob Colgrove, Albertsons Southwest division president.

Other supermarkets and grocers, including Safeway, Fry's and Bashas', said this week that they don't plan to follow Albertsons' lead and will keep their cards.
Reference Here>>

That's because their (Safeway, Fry's, and Bashas') cards work.

By the way, never listen to anyone who uses “IRREGARDLESS” … it (irregardless) is NOT a word. Just as a barcode is not a barcode when it can be, or becomes mushed.