Panera goes palm reading… not the mystical kind. Yesterday the bread-bowl icon announced a partnership with Amazon’s biometric tech ("Amazon One”), which lets customers pay by scanning their hand. Amazon rolled out its pay-with-your-palm tech in 2020, and has expanded into dozens of Whole Foods, Starbucks’ "pick-up" cafés, and even sports stadiums and concert venues. Now Panera’s testing the tech ahead of a potential IPO this year.
- My palm era: Customers link their MyPanera membership (or sign up if they don’t have one) and connect with an Amazon One account. After scanning their palm…
- Hand it to you: Panera workers can see personal info like names, loyalty-points balance, and fave orders (think: Asiago bagel with extra cream cheese).
- Handful: The check-out tech is being tested at two Panera locations (in its hometown of St. Louis) but is set to expand to 10+ locations soon.
“Pick Two” takeover… Panera wants to make broccoli-cheddar-soup habits more seamless for its loyal customers, because easy habits are easily repeatable habits. Panera has one of the largest loyalty programs in the US (over 52M members) and its loyalty-building habits are paying off:
- Sip’d up: 25% of Panera's transactions come from Sip Club members, who pay $12/month for its unlimited-drinks subscription (imagine: endless coffee and tea).
- Paid out: A third of Sip Club customers end up spending more $$ on extra goodies (think: free lemonade, but you pair it with a $5 bagel).
Rewarding a habit strengthens a habit… By making habits easy and rewarding, chains like Panera and Starbucks can drive more sales. Case in point: over half of Panera’s and Starbucks’ US sales come from loyalty members. With the palm-scan tech, Panera hopes your lunch and coffee habits will get even stickier.