Korean Convenience Stores Begin Rolling Out Face Biometric Payments At The Point-Of-Sale
By Sarah Clark
Three of South Korea’s largest convenience store chains have all agreed to adopt a new face biometrics payments system that lets shoppers make payments in stores without either their bank card or their mobile phone.
The new Face Pay service has been introduced by local mobile financial services provider Toss and is currently being tested by employees at selected CU and GS25 convenience stores ahead of a public launch in March. 7-Eleven will then also go live with the service during the second quarter of 2025.
Additional convenience stores, along with cinemas and cafes are then set to roll out the service.
“Face Pay is a payment method in which users who have registered their faces on the Toss app can make payments by having their faces recognised by a dedicated terminal at the checkout counter,” Toss says.
“Toss Face Pay is characterised by high accuracy and fast speed. Face authentication is completed in one second with 99.99 per cent accuracy. In addition, it is easy to use as payment is processed by the selected method among credit card, check card and account after registering the face only once on the Toss app.
“It also has an advanced security system. All data related to Face Pay is encrypted and safely managed on a separate server. During the facial recognition stage, fake faces such as photos or videos are also filtered out.”
“We expect that Face Pay, based on fast and secure authentication technology, will be able to provide users with an innovative payment experience,” Toss adds. “We will work to expand payment locations so that paying with your face can become a daily routine.”
