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BIOMETRICS
FOR RETAIL
POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION
BAYOMETRIC
MARCH 12, 2017
Written & Compiled By
Danny Thakkar
CEO & Co-Founder
“ The global biometrics market will increase to $15 billion this year from an estimated $7 million dollar just three years back.
” BIOMETRICS RESEARCH GROUP, INC. The parent organization of BiometricUpdate.com
POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION
Bayometric
1743 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA, 95126
sales@bayometric.co.uk
t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
t. 408.940.3955 (INT)
INTRODUCTION
Biometric technology is identifying individuals
based on their unique physiological or
behavioural characteristics such as fingerprint,
iris, voice, face etc. Due to this characteristic
biometric technology is highly accurate and
reliable. There are many types of biometric
technology such as fingerprint recognition,
voice recognition, iris scanning etc. Biometric
technology has been successfully adopted in
industries such as law enforcement, banking
security, border control, healthcare etc. and its
adoption in POS solutions within the retail
industry is also increasing quite rapidly.
According to Biometrics Research Group, it is
predicted that the global biometrics market will
increase to $15 billion this year from an
estimated $7 million dollar just three years
back. According to another technology firm
Frost and Sullivan, it is predicted that almost
half a billion people will be using biometric
technology equipped smart phones by 2017. So
we can see the tremendous potential of
biometric technology and its adoption in retail
POS will surely provide faster and more secured
ways of managing the business transactions.
The biggest benefit that biometrics could offer
the retail industry is POS payment
authentication because traditional methods
such as passwords or PINs are considered
obsolete and vulnerable to security breaches.
WHY ARE BIOMETRIC POS SYSTEMS NEEDED?
Modern day point of sale software systems
have evolved over the years and so have the
transactional complexities and nuances of the
retail industry. These software systems should
be user friendly and agile so that transactions
can be handled quickly leading to profit
maximization. Thus modern day POS systems
need a sophisticated technology which can
assure reliability, security, accountability and
quickness. Biometric technology such as
fingerprint identification can meet all these
criteria without sacrificing precision.
Fingerprint POS at ration shops in India (Photo: The Hindu)
In the retail industry, employees traditionally
used swipe cards or password and PINs for
logins. But these identification methods are
now considered outdated and expensive. Often
employees forget or lose their PINs or ID cards
leading to unnecessary expenses and
productivity interruptions. This in turn could
cause a great financial loss to the business
owners. Using passwords or ID cards also lead
POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION
Bayometric
1743 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA, 95126
sales@bayometric.co.uk
t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
t. 408.940.3955 (INT)
to buddy punching and payroll frauds. Buddy
punching is another common problem in the
retail industry in which one employee clocks
into the POS system for an absent or late
employee using their ID cards or passwords.
Biometrics is a more accurate method of
identification as they cannot be shared and
integrating it in a POS system can help
eliminate the loopholes of traditional
identification systems. Biometric based systems
such as fingerprint recognition can eliminate
the problems of buddy punching and allow for
more secure manager approvals. Thus
integrating biometric technology in a POS
system can add a lot of value to the customer
by boosting accuracy, security and increasing
the overall efficiency of the business.
FINGERPRINT BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY IN
POS SYSTEMS
Today's retail industry is fast paced and
demanding. Business owners have to
continuously deal with problems such as payroll
theft and POS shrink. Hence they look for
secure solutions which can maximize their
return on investment (ROI) and allow tracking
the workflow thus eliminating time theft and
fraudulent transactions. And at the same time,
these solutions should also be cost-effective.
More and more retailers are choosing to
integrate biometric fingerprint recognition in
their POS systems as it is affordable,
convenient and the most widely used biometric
identification method.
Swipe cards or passwords can be stolen and
transactions easily carried out by the individuals
having these stolen cards or passwords in their
possession. Biometrics, on the other hand is
almost fool proof as it is based on the inherent
characteristic of the individual. Fingerprints are
unique to each individual and even identical
twins do not have the same set of fingerprints.
Hence it is the most accurate form of
identification and implementing fingerprint
recognition technology in POS systems will
ensure peace of mind to the retailers and faith
in the POS systems. They will be able to
conduct their retail operations smoothly and
efficiently while at the same time increasing
employee productivity.
HOW CAN INTEGRATION OF BIOMETRIC
TECHNOLOGY BENEFIT POS SYSTEMS?
Even though retailers would like to believe in
the honesty and integrity of their workforce,
they still need to adopt loss prevention
technologies in their POS systems that will help
curb fraudulent transactions, safeguard their
business and enable profit maximization. A
report by the U.S. Department of Commerce
estimates that American businesses lose a lot of
money due to employee dishonesty which
amounts to more than $50 billion annually. The
magnitude of this amount indicates that it is
indeed an arduous task to prevent losses
happening due to employee thefts. Hence
retailers cannot rely on conventional methods
to manage inventory or employees as they
have many loopholes and cannot provide
effective security against frauds.
Biometric technology such as fingerprint
recognition adds an added layer of security to
POS systems which ensures that only the
authorised individual can access his account
POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION
Bayometric
1743 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA, 95126
sales@bayometric.co.uk
t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
t. 408.940.3955 (INT)
and must also be present physically at the time
of transaction. Fingerprint recognition is highly
reliable as it is based on the inherent
characteristic of the individual and also
extremely difficult to spoof under normal
conditions. Thus it eliminates the problems
associated with swipe cards or passwords which
can be shared among employees and helps in
maintaining a concrete audit trail of each
transaction.
Moreover, there are expenses associated with
replacing a lost or stolen card. Resources also
need to be spent in resetting a forgotten or
compromised password. The IT help desk might
have to spent unnecessary time in resetting
forgotten passwords or PINs of employees. A
report by Gartner Research estimates that IT
help desk spend as much as 40% of their time
in resetting forgotten PINs. This leads to a huge
time drain and affects productivity levels.
Integrating biometric fingerprint recognition in
POS systems will remove any need for
password management and instead allow retail
establishments to focus on their core
competencies. Employees can securely and
accurately clock in their time with a quick scan
of their fingerprint. So the need for scanning
cards or entering PINs are totally eliminated. A
biometric enabled POS system will enable
accurate identification of employees and
retailers no longer need to worry about
employee identity theft.
Employee time theft and employee retail theft
are the areas contributing to the highest
percentage of point of sale shrink over the past
few years and the numbers continue to rise.
Deploying a biometric fingerprint reader at POS
systems helps to seamlessly tie employees to
each sale and ensures accountability of every
discount, return or gift card transaction. Thus
retailers now have more control over employee
activity and are able to audit trail every
completed sale to the sales person. Hence
cases where unscrupulous employees scam or
rip off retailers through false returns and phony
transactions can be totally eliminated with the
help of biometric enabled POS systems.
Biometric fingerprint readers allow accurate
capturing of employee time and attendance
data which is critical for efficient workforce
management. For hourly employees, the time
calculations are straightforward and
transparent. It is more secured than card based
systems which have many loopholes such as
buddy punching. The benefits of integrating
biometric technology in POS systems are
immediately realised in terms of reduced time
and attendance fraud and better adherence to
corporate policies by allowing secure manager
approvals and transaction overrides.
Shoppers can also benefit from fingerprint
recognition while making payments at POS
terminals. Nowadays, many brick and mortar
businesses such as cafeterias are using
fingerprint solutions in their POS systems that
enable their patrons to make payments quickly
without the need to remember passwords or
cards.
INTEGRATING FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION IN
POS SYSTEMS
Touch N Go is a developer friendly biometric
solution that allows easy integration of
POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION
Bayometric
1743 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA, 95126
sales@bayometric.co.uk
t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
t. 408.940.3955 (INT)
fingerprint recognition technology into existing
point of sale systems. The unique nature of the
integration methodology of Touch N Go allows
for very quick fingerprint integration. In fact,
fingerprint integration into existing POS
systems can be accomplished with just four
lines of code and does not take months or
hours. Even with no prior experience, Touch N
Go allows fingerprint recognition to be
integrated into applications instantly and with
no learning curve.
Touch N Go provides the highest level of
security and a solid identity management
infrastructure for existing applications. The GUI
is completely pre-developed and ready to use
and hence developers are not required to spend
any time on this component. Also, the client
and server installation takes just a few minutes.
Touch N Go has support for a variety of
programming languages such as C, Java, .NET
etc. and programmers also have access to the
inbuilt applications and source code in different
languages. It has features such as fingerprint
deduplication and fingerprint quality checks.
These checks are performed in the background
to ensure that duplicate fingerprints do not get
enrolled in the system and also only the best
quality fingerprints get enrolled. Thus retailers
looking to rapidly adopt fingerprint recognition
technology in their POS systems can take
advantage of the many features of Touch N Go
biometric solution.
CONCLUSION
We have already discussed the various benefits
of biometric technology integration in POS
systems. Biometric fingerprint identification is a
cost-effective solution and has proven to be
both durable and reliable. It is a highly accurate
system that ensures only authorized individuals
will have access to POS terminals, networks
and applications. Within the first few months of
fingerprint integration in POS systems,
unauthorised manager overrides are stopped
and employee time and attendance fraud are
eliminated completely. Sophisticated users
clearly recognize the immense benefits of
investing in biometric technology. The return on
investment (ROI) is tangible in terms of
increased employee productivity, improved time
and attendance tracking and customer
satisfaction. Retailers can have a detailed
perspective of their business which allows them
to run their operations securely and efficiently.
POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION
Bayometric
1743 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA, 95126
sales@bayometric.co.uk
t. 877.917.3287 (USA)
t. 408.940.3955 (INT)
AUTHOR
DANNY THAKKAR CEO & Co-Founder
Danny Thakkar is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bayometric,
one of the leading biometric solution providers in the
world. He has been in the Biometric Industry for 10+
years and has extensive experience across public and
private sector verticals. Currently, he is chief evangelist for
Touch N Go.
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created by Bayometric. Information contained in this whitepaper is the copyright of Bayometric.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works
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above copyright notice and this section are included on all such copies and derivative works.
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This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and
Bayometric LLC disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to any
warranty that the use of the information herein will not infringe any ownership rights or any
implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
REFERENCES 1. Biometrics Can Enhance POS Security – Retail Pro Blog
2. Tips on Cleaning up Employee Theft to Increase Company Revenues – Martin Investigative
Services, Inc.
3. How Biometrics is Changing the Retail Industry – APS Group
4. The Benefits of Integrating Biometrics with a POS Solution – M2SYS Blog
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