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What Revolut hopes to gain by pushing 'selfie payments'

Revolut tests facial recognition 'Pay with Smile' technology to streamline the retail checkout experience and drive POS hardware adoption.

Revolut is introducing 'Pay with Smile,' a facial recognition payment system designed to speed up the checkout process and promote its new point-of-sale hardware. This technology allows customers to complete purchases by simply looking at a camera, eliminating the need for physical cards or phones. For retailers, this represents the next frontier in reducing friction at the register. The goal is to make transactions faster than traditional chip-and-pin or even tap-to-pay methods. However, the success of biometric payments for your business depends heavily on consumer trust. While the technology promises to cut down on queues and improve the customer experience, many shoppers remain wary of how their biometric data is stored and secured. Revolut is currently testing this in select markets to build a network of users and merchants. For operators, this signifies a shift toward integrated hardware and software ecosystems where identity and payment are linked. If widely adopted, it could reduce instances of fraud and lost-card issues, but it requires an investment in specific POS hardware compatible with facial recognition software. Retailers should keep an eye on how quickly consumers adopt these 'no-touch' habits before overhauling their current systems.

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