As a result of the internet, shopping habits have shifted. Buying something no longer necessitates physically visiting a store. Consumers can find anything they want to buy online. However, there is a potential downside to this ease of access: when making online purchases, even minors can buy adult products.
An identity verification solution is a must to ensure that only legal adults are making purchases from your online store. Moreover, your site seriously lacks functionality if you don’t implement this strategy.
What is Age Verification?
Age verification refers to the process of checking a person’s claimed age against their actual age. This can be done in several ways, the most common of which is to present some form of proof like a driver’s license, passport, or credit card.
Using an identity validation solution to check a buyer’s age is a safe way to ensure they purchase legally. It’s the same idea as asking for identification at a bar or nightclub. The sale of age-restricted items like alcoholic beverages and tobacco products is a primary requirement for some online stores to demand proof of age before purchasing.
Why is Age Verification System Important for E-commerce?
Many jurisdictions, including the USA and Canada, demand proof of age before allowing minors to purchase alcohol. Laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but they all share the requirement that stores selling alcoholic beverages or tobacco products must check the customer’s ID to ensure that they are at least 21 years old.
Online merchants who don’t take measures to comply with age verification laws risk facing fines and even jail time if they are found to violate state law. Some additional positive aspects of identity verification solutions for online businesses are listed below.
- One of the most important things you can do for your online store is to ensure its website is safe for customers. Shoppers on the fence about whether or not to purchase on a given website are less likely to do so. This can result in lower sales and even harm your company’s image.
- Age verification systems will give your customers a sense of extra security when they shop with you. As they shop on your site, this eases their minds and lets them concentrate on what matters: discovering the goods they seek at reasonable prices.
- Identity verification allows you to provide a more individualized shopping experience for adults who wish to purchase your products online, improving customer satisfaction.
- Laws requiring a minimum customer age also serve to clarify your target demographic. Customers can be more easily segmented and targeted with age-based marketing if the age range is narrowed down to a finer level of detail.
- Online businesses will appear more trustworthy and professional if you implement age verification. Customers will have more faith in your business if you take measures to prevent underage users from accessing adult material on your website. In this way, you can encourage your customers to shop with you again in the future.
- Sales on eCommerce sites can be boosted by using an age verification system to ensure buyers are over 18. This helps to protect the business from any possible legal ramifications that may arise due to fraudulent purchases and lowers the likelihood of such occurrences.
- Make sure customers have a positive shopping experience by giving them faith in the suitability of the products they buy. Online businesses can increase their profits and their customers’ safety by using an identity validation solution.
- In e-commerce, identity validation solutions protect customer data. Verifying customers’ ages and identities prevents businesses from collecting data from minors. Minors’ and their families’ privacy is protected. By requiring customers to verify their identity and age, identity theft and other fraud are reduced. It prevents data theft and misuse by ensuring only legitimate customers use the website.
How Can Businesses Verify Customers’ Ages Online?
Verifying customer ages online is necessary for businesses, especially e-commerce retailers. E-commerce sites selling alcoholic beverages or tobacco products are legally obligated to limit customer identification documents to ensure they are of legal purchasing age.
Various online age verification ways are available, but your company should pick the one that best suits its needs. Regardless of your chosen method or solution, ensuring reliable and easy-to-use age verification is essential. Viewing your website and purchasing your products will be restricted to those of the appropriate age.
A few of the most typical approaches are as follows:
- Use a credit or debit card with a security code to confirm their age. This method can benefit companies peddling products with short return windows and lengthy guarantees. Anyone can purchase and use prepaid or gift cards, making this method suspect.
- Use a scanning app on their ID to ensure they’re not underage. With this system, businesses can read the data from any government-issued ID (like a driver’s license) by scanning its barcode. This method is safer than requesting physical IDs because it restricts access to only those granted permission to enter.
- Get a customer’s email or phone number to invite them to finish the purchase online. Without either information, the visitor to your website will be denied access.
- Get some independent verification software. Automate the online ID verification process with the help of image recognition technology and other solutions. Some companies provide software that makes this possible for businesses. ID card images are compared to those in third-party databases to determine which are valid.
- Utilize age verification via text message. Customer age verification via text message is possible if you can access their phone number and send them a verification code.
Conclusion
To strengthen your online business, check a customer’s age. It’s simple and quick. Using age verification software, you can quickly determine your customers’ ages and take that crucial step toward protecting your business. With this measure, you can rest assured that only adult customers can purchase from your site, protecting you from future legal issues.
Also, if you have a system in place to check someone’s age, it will be much easier to gain the trust of your target market. They may feel more comfortable purchasing from you knowing you are taking precautions to protect their personal information. In this way, you can encourage your customers to shop with you again in the future.
