Dive Brief:

• Whole Foods Market plans to bring the Amazon One palm recognition and payment system to all of the grocery chain’s more than 500 stores by the end of 2023, Amazon announced in a blog post on Thursday.
• The biometric service is currently in place at over 200 Whole Foods locations in 20 states.
• Amazon said it is bringing the service to more Whole Foods locations as retailers and shoppers display growing interest in the technology.

Dive Insight:

In a reflection of Amazon One’s expanding reach, Amazon said the technology, introduced in late 2020, is currently in operation at more than 400 retail locations in the U.S. and has generated 3 million uses, calling the figure a “critical milestone.”

In June, by comparison, Amazon said the technology had been used more than 1 million times

Amazon-owned Whole Foods is broadening its deployment of the Amazon One technology as other retailers have adopted the system as a way to allow shoppers to identify themselves and pay for products.

Panera Bread, for example, began testing the technology at two locations in March, and Amazon pointed out that it allows employees to offer a personalized experience to customers even before they are ready to pay for an order.

Amazon is also positioning Amazon One as a way to serve customers rapidly in crowded locations like sports facilities and airports.

Amazon offers the Amazon One service at stores in its Amazon Fresh supermarket chain in addition to Whole Foods stores.

Last summer, Whole Foods began rolling out Amazon One to 65 California stores in what was at the time the chain’s largest-scale deployment of the technology. In April, Amazon One showed up at 11 Whole Foods locations in the Denver area.

“Since we’ve introduced Amazon One at Whole Foods Market stores over the past two years, we’ve seen that customers love the convenience it provides, and we’re excited to bring Amazon One to all of our customers across the U.S.,” Leandro Balbinot, Whole Foods’ chief technology officer, said in a statement.

Since acquiring Whole Foods in 2017, Amazon has been adding its leading-edge technology to the specialty grocer’s stores and back-end operations. In addition to the Amazon One expansion, last year Amazon Dash Carts rolled out to several Whole Foods stores and two Whole Foods locations added the e-tailer’s frictionless Just Walk Out system. Both technologies have yet to expand beyond these test runs.