Piggly Wiggly Extends Pay By Touch Throughout Southeast

Pay By Touch today announced that all Piggly Wiggly shoppers in South Carolina and Southeast Georgia will soon be able to pay for their groceries with the touch of a finger. After a
positive consumer response to the new technology, Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co.
is launching Pay By Touch company-wide to all of its corporate-owned grocery
stores by May 2005.

Since July 2004, Piggly Wiggly customers in four South Carolina grocery
stores have been using Pay By Touch to purchase groceries using a finger scan
linked to their financial accounts. Customer research revealed that 50
percent of Piggly Wiggly's Pay By Touch users are driven by the convenience of
not having to present cards, checks, or their PFC/Greenbax rewards cards at
the point of sale. And, when asked how Piggly Wiggly could improve its Pay By
Touch offering, users wanted to see Pay By Touch in more stores.

"Our customers embraced Pay By Touch during the pilot period because it is
an easier and safer way to pay," said Rich Farrell, vice president of
information services at Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. "After only five months in
our Charleston, South Carolina locations, more Piggly Wiggly customers are
using Pay By Touch Express Checking (ACH) than any one of the credit card
products we accept. We listen to our shoppers, and Pay By Touch is what they
want."

Pay By Touch presented Piggly Wiggly shoppers with an Express Checking
(ACH), a new type of transaction that was introduced during the pilot.
Express Checking is a direct electronic withdrawal from shoppers' bank
accounts. Express Checking is convenient for shoppers, and helps Piggly
Wiggly reduce costs associated with transaction fees. Express Checking will
be the featured way to pay during the company-wide rollout.

"We're thrilled about the success Piggly Wiggly has had with Pay By
Touch," said John Rogers, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Pay By Touch. "We
believe 2005 will be a big year for consumer biometric payments across the
country, and Piggly Wiggly is leading the movement toward a new way for
shoppers to pay. The impressive customer adoption rates we've seen already
will continue to increase as we add more and more retailers to our network."

The one-time Pay By Touch enrollment is simple and takes just a couple of
minutes. Shoppers can begin the enrollment process online at
http://www.paybytouch.com, or they can do it in-store. Once enrolled -- no
matter what store or part of the country they are in -- customers simply scan
their finger and select a preferred payment method every time they pay. Pay By
Touch can be found in stores across the country.

Through its partnership with IBM, Pay By Touch guarantees that customers'
electronic wallets and financial accounts are stored in highly secure IBM data
centers. The partnership also played a part in Piggly Wiggly's selection of
IBM as its provider of choice for implementing Pay By Touch in all of its
grocery store locations.

The Pay By Touch finger scanning technology does not store actual
fingerprints; instead, it creates a set of 40 data points that cannot be
reverse engineered into a fingerprint. The data points are then encrypted and
converted into a mathematical equation that allows for a secure identity match
at retail point of sale.

In addition to implementing Pay By Touch in Piggly Wiggly stores
throughout the country, Pay By Touch is planning additional rollouts in other
national retail chains later this year.

Author:  

Email:    

Topic:    

Content: