Some executives say that such technology, known as biometrics, will start to become more commonplace in the retail industry this year.

At a seminar held Wednesday at the National Retail Federation's annual convention, Green Hills Supermarket CEO Gary Hawkins and his son, Sterling Hawkins, vice president of retail industry consulting firm Hawkins Strategic, discussed how biometrics can help personalized marketing.

Under such a program, a supermarket customer logs online, browses special offers created specifically for them based on past purchases, creates a shopping list and then goes to the supermarket where he or she can print out the list. Once the consumer is finished shopping, they can pay via a machine that reads their fingerprint and accesses their stored information, eliminating the need for a credit card or cash.

"It's personalizing shopping," said Sterling Hawkins. "Think of it like a customized ad flier."

The system offers advantages over loyalty cards, which are often misused, says Gary Hawkins, including cashiers using their own loyalty cards for shoppers or people swapping cards.

Since the father-and-son team launched the program at Syracuse, N.Y.-based Green Hills in May 2006, 50 percent of sales and transactions are done biometrically, Gary Hawkins said. The program gets 100 new enrollees every week, and customers who enroll typically spend 6 percent more and shop 10 percent more.

While the program exists on a small scale at the supermarket, it can be applied to larger retailers, Gary Hawkins said. He predicts an explosion in using the technology in 2007.

"Personalized marketing is moving into retail," he said.

source:Associated Press