[EVENT] Touché Officially Launches World’s First Biometric Loyalty & Payment Platform

Whenever I am preparing for my morning jog, someone in the family would jump at the opportunity to have me make some purchases on my way home. That would mean I have to carry something extra with me, such as cash, credit card or smartphone other than my keys.

Although these extra items are rather compact, it irks me to have to worry about them falling off from my pocket during my jog or when I need to get something else out from my pocket, and not to mention, having to bear that extra weight with a smartphone in my pocket.

I imagined a day when I can go for my morning jog without carrying anything with me. Without carrying my home keys through the use of a biometric door lock. Without my smartphone so that I can disconnect to truly connect with myself and the environment around me. Without cash or credit card yet I am still able to bring my shopping basket to the cashier, or to walk into McDonald's to order my favourite McDonald's Big Breakfast meal and make payments through a simple touch on biometric sensor at the POS system.

Two weeks ago, I received a call from Jas, and she asked if I would be keen to check out this really cool payment system that is up and coming. As I get to know more about the details, I know that we will soon arrive at the day whereby my imagination would become a reality!

Front-view of the Touché display interface

Introducing Touché (pronounced; to-shay), the WORLD's FIRST Biometric loyalty & payment platform. Make payments using just your fingers!

Originated from Singapore and officially launched on 12th January, this technology has already been presented in the market and within a span of 3 months, 150 restaurants, 15 local hotels and 5 private social clubs have already shown their interest in implementing this solution.

Rear-view of the Touché device, notice the ergonomic design of where the biometric sensor is located

While this payment method is still in its early stages, you will be able to find this technology already implemented at Grignoter, a bistro-bar run by Celebrity Chef Justin Quek, located at 2 Teck Lim Road, Singapore (088380).

Upon arrival at Grignoter,, I was greeted by Elise, Business Manager, along with Kirill, Android Developer at Touché. Elise kindly walked me through the entire registration procedure with the use of a demo system, and everything took less than 5 minutes!

Can you imagine what this would mean for us in the near future! Well, what it means to me is that I know I can go jogging without having to carry any items with me, and still make payments whenever I want to.

A clip which showcases the idea when payment is done in a restaurant environment can be found on the Touché website here.

The CEO, Mr Sahba Saint-Claire also provided us with some insights to the background, implementation and direction of the Company. The homegrown Company has plans to penetrate into Japan, with a market size in excess of US$200 million.

From a consumer point of view, these are some of the benefits:

1) One simple registration to use the system globally - Pay with your credit card during your first visit to the Merchant and use Touché's solution to link the card to your finger. Subsequently, no further registration required to the Merchant.

2) Convenience is the key - No longer need to carry anything around when shopping. No longer need to look for payment or loyalty cards, counts money notes or wait for paper receipts and signature to be processed. After making payment with your fingers on the Touché device, an email will be sent to you with the details.

3) Security is at the core of Touché - No information is stored on the device. Fingerprints information are encrypted on a cloud system and credit card information is tokenised. The highest encryption level is used to communicate with the server to protect the users' privacy.

4) Smart shopping and increased savings with Touché - The Touché wallets offers more than just payment methods. You will also be able to access offers, loyalty programes, vouchers, coupons and memberships and be notified of the loyalty benefits or credit card promotions at one glance. Access to your shopping or dining experiences and expenditure history is also available via the Touché journal.

From a business point of view, the waiter doesn’t have to walk to and fro multiple times from the cashier to the customer to make payment. Think about it:

Step 1: Customer signals for waiter’s attention.
Step 2: Waiter walks to the customer, where customer asks for the table to be billed.
Step 3: Waiter walks back to the POS system to retrieve records for the purchases made, and walks back to the customer with the bill.
Step 4: Customer verifies his/her bill and hands over his/her credit card.
Step 5: Waiter walks back to the POS system to credit the amount to the credit card
Step 6: Waiter then brings the credit card and customer’s receipt as well as merchant’s copy receipt on which the customer has to produce a signature.
Step 7: Finally, the waiter then brings the merchant’s receipt back to the POS system and ensure that the merchant’s copy receipt is well-kept in their designated area.

Compare all of the above steps with this:

Step 1: Customer signals for waiter’s attention.
Step 2: Waiter walks towards the customer while holding the portable POS device. Customer asks to be billed.
Step 3: Waiter then presents the portable device with the bill on display, then the customer places his/her finger onto the biometric sensor, and selects the stored credit card to be billed.
Step 4: Transaction complete.

The implementation of this technology over the conventional payment method definitely carries various benefits from time-saving to improving the productivity of employees. Loyalty programs and unique offers can be tailored to different customers, thus maintaining the long-term relationship with customers.