Amazon has announced that it will discontinue its Amazon One service by mid-2026, nearly five years after its launch in 2020. The service allowed customers to pay or enter stores by scanning their palms, eliminating the need for credit cards or cash.

Why Amazon One Is Being Shut Down: Low Adoption and Privacy Concerns

According to company statements, Amazon One will be completely shut down by June 3, becoming one of the technology experiments that never gained widespread adoption, which limited its contribution to the company’s profits.

A company spokesperson explained that the decision was due to low customer adoption, and confirmed that all biometric data associated with the service will be securely deleted to protect customer privacy.

This announcement follows previous reports indicating that Amazon would scale back its physical store experiments, including Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh, which had heavily relied on Amazon One technology, shifting the company’s focus instead to online same-day delivery and new large-format stores.

When launched, Amazon One generated widespread debate, especially regarding privacy and surveillance concerns, particularly as its use expanded beyond stores to other venues, which helps explain the low adoption of this innovative service.

How Did Amazon One Work?

The service relied on capturing images of the palm surface and the vein structure beneath the skin to create a unique palm print for each user. This raised privacy concerns among users, prompting Amazon to clarify that all data was encrypted and securely stored on its cloud servers, not on the devices themselves. Users were also able to manage their data or opt out via the Amazon One app until the service officially closes.

Another Bold Experiment Joins the List of Discontinued Innovations

Amazon One now joins a list of bold Amazon innovations that did not achieve the expected success or reach the adoption levels the company had planned. Nevertheless, Amazon continues to focus on its core, profitable activities, from cloud computing (AWS) to advertising and e-commerce. This approach reflects the company’s guiding principle of “fail fast and learn”, which is central to Amazon’s innovation strategy.

Some of the company’s previous discontinued innovations include:

  • Amazon Fire Phone (2014): Launched with innovative features but discontinued after just one year due to low adoption.
  • Dash Buttons: Small devices allowing customers to reorder household products with a single press, discontinued in 2019.
  • Amazon Halo: A wearable device for health and fitness monitoring, including voice analysis and body scanning features, discontinued in 2023.

Amazon Prepares to Release Financial Results for Q4 2025

Amazon is preparing to announce its Q4 2025 earnings following the close of trading on Thursday, February 5, 2026. This report is expected to draw significant attention from financial markets, as it will provide a comprehensive view of the company’s performance during last year’s holiday shopping season.

The report will also cover operational changes, including large-scale layoffs affecting tens of thousands of jobs, particularly those carried out in October 2025.

Analysts expect Amazon to achieve $211.27 billion in revenue, up from $180 billion in Q3 2025.