As Amazon One—Amazon Web Services’s palm recognition service for identification, payment, loyalty membership, and entry at over 400 locations across the U.S.—reaches a critical milestone with more than 3 million uses, Whole Foods Market stores are going all in. By the end of this year, all 500+ Whole Foods Market locations in the U.S. will offer Amazon One for payment and Prime membership benefits. This means Whole Foods Market customers who choose to use Amazon One will no longer need their wallet or even a phone to pay—they can simply hover their palm over an Amazon One device. For Prime members who link their Amazon One profile with their Amazon account, savings will automatically be applied. It’s that simple.

A photo of a customer's hand hovering an Amazon One payment scanner at a Whole Foods check out stand.
A photo of a customer's hand hovering an Amazon One payment scanner at a Whole Foods check out stand.

Amazon One is currently available at more than 200 Whole Foods Market locations across the U.S., including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Amazon One will continue to be rolled out to Whole Foods Market stores in other states and U.S. locations over the coming months.

Whole Foods Market expansion reflects a growing demand for Amazon One

In addition to Amazon One’s availability at stores like Amazon Fresh stores and Whole Foods Market locations, third-party businesses are increasingly offering Amazon One as an identification and payment option for their customers—and some of them are also using Amazon One in new ways.

A photo of a customer purchasing a coffee and croissant with Amazon One.
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Panera Bread recently launched Amazon One’s loyalty linking capability at select Panera restaurants. With this feature, guests can simply hover their palm over the Amazon One device, and the Panera associate will be able to pull up their MyPanera loyalty account information, greet the guest by name, and provide a customized experience. After the order is placed, the guest can scan their palm again to pay.

At Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies MLB team, Aramark Sports + Entertainment is taking advantage of Amazon One’s “age verification” capability. This feature allows adult customers ages 21 and over to purchase alcoholic beverages by simply scanning their palm at an Amazon One device without looking for their government-issued IDs.

Travel retailers, like Hudson, CREWS, and OHM, understand the benefits of palm payment in busy airport environments, and have deployed Amazon One at their airport stores in Atlanta, Charleston, Dallas, Dulles, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Newark, Nashville, Seattle, and more. Sports venues are revolutionizing the fan experience through partnerships with businesses like AXS, Compass, Delaware North, Levy, Penn Entertainment, Sodexo, and others. Currently, Amazon One is available at sports stadiums like Bridgestone Arena, Climate Pledge Arena, Globe Life Field, Lumen Field, T-Mobile Center, T-Mobile Park, NASCAR Raceway, and Texas A&M’s Kyle Field, as well as entertainment venues like Hollywood Casino at Greektown in Detroit, and more. Amazon One is also available at several grocery and convenience stores.

Using Amazon One at Whole Foods Market stores is easy for consumers

First-time Amazon One users can pre-enroll online with their credit or debit card, Amazon account, and mobile number, and the process takes about a minute. They can then complete the enrollment process in seconds by scanning their palm over an Amazon One device the next time they visit a participating Whole Foods Market store—or anywhere Amazon One is available. Once enrolled, Amazon Prime members will automatically see savings and other Prime member benefits applied to their Whole Foods Market store purchases. Alternatively, customers can also enroll for Amazon One in the store at an Amazon One device with their credit card and phone number.

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“We are always looking for new ways to delight our customers and improve the shopping experience,” said Leandro Balbinot, chief technology officer at Whole Foods Market. “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.”

Amazon One offers a fast, convenient and secure option for businesses

Amazon One helps businesses speed up their identification and payment processes, enable customers to easily link to and access their loyalty programs, verify age, and provide secure access to sports and entertainment venues, office buildings, and more.

Amazon One has partnerships with American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa, and major banks across the U.S., enabling cardholders to use Amazon One and enjoy the benefits of fast and convenient identification and payment.

Additionally, unlike a credit card or password, an Amazon One palm signature can’t be replicated to impersonate a customer. That’s because Amazon One does not use raw palm images to identify a person. Instead, it looks at both the palm and underlying vein structure to create a unique numerical, vector representation—called a “palm signature”—for identity matching.

Further, customer palm data is safeguarded in the AWS Cloud. AWS is backed by more than 300 cloud security tools and 100,000 security partners from around the world. In addition, Amazon One is protected by multiple security controls and has tamper-detection capabilities that will render the device unusable if meddled with.

For more information about how Amazon One works, check out the FAQs below and learn about the top 5 facts you may not know about Amazon One, our palm recognition service.

Amazon One FAQs
  • How does Amazon One work?
    Amazon One uses multiple characteristics of a palm to identify each person who uses the service. When you hold your palm over the Amazon One device, the technology evaluates multiple aspects of your palm to identify that it’s you. Cameras in the hardware capture surface-area details like lines and ridges, as well as subcutaneous features such as vein patterns. No two palms are alike, so we analyze multiple attributes and select the most distinct identifiers to create your unique palm signature.
  • Why did you choose palm recognition over other biometrics?
    We selected palm recognition for a few important reasons. First, palm recognition is considered more private than some biometric alternatives because you can’t determine a person’s identity by looking at an image of their palm. It also requires an intentional gesture—hovering your palm over an Amazon One device—to use. And it’s contactless, which we think customers will appreciate. Ultimately, using a palm as a biometric identifier puts customers in control of when and where they use the service.
  • What is a palm signature and how does it make Amazon One more secure?
    While your palm and vein patterns are permanent, the digital palm signature we use for identification is not. Unlike a credit card or password, your Amazon One palm signature can’t be replicated to impersonate you. This is because Amazon One does not use raw palm images to identify a person. Instead, it looks at both palm and underlying vein structure to create a unique numerical, vector representation—the palm signature—for identity matching. This allows us to delete palm signatures and generate new ones, at any time.
  • How does the AWS Cloud make Amazon One more secure?
    The AWS Cloud protects sensitive customer data by offering several enhanced security capabilities not available on your phone. AWS is backed by more than 300 cloud security tools and 100,000 security partners from around the world. Millions of customers, including the most security-sensitive organizations like governments, health care facilities, and financial services, have built services on our highly secure cloud. Amazon One leverages the enterprise-level security capabilities of AWS, along with multilayered security controls built into the hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure to ensure that customer data stays encrypted and secure. Amazon One is also protected by multiple security controls and has tamper-detection capabilities that will render the device unusable if meddled with. When you scan your palm, the palm and vein images are immediately encrypted and sent to a highly secure zone in the AWS Cloud, custom built for Amazon One, where your unique palm signature is created. Access to this area of the cloud is highly restricted to select AWS employees with specialized expertise to manage this cloud environment.
  • Will you share customer’s palm data with government agencies or advertisers?
    Amazon One will never share palm data with third parties, under any circumstance, including in response to government demands, unless we're required to comply with a legally valid and binding order. Additionally, Amazon One is not interoperable with data provided by other sources. This is because Amazon One uses a proprietary combination of palm and vein imagery to recognize customers, making it unusable to third parties and unmatchable with data from other sources. Further, Amazon One palm data is not used by Amazon for marketing purposes, and it will not be bought by or sold to other companies for advertising, marketing, or any other reason. In fact, when you use Amazon One at third-party locations, Amazon doesn’t track what you do or buy after entering the location. That data is not associated with your biometric identity, and we built Amazon One that way intentionally.

Learn more about Amazon One and experience it for yourself. The private, secure power of convenience is in the palm of your hand. Find an Amazon One location near you.