Age verification is one of the most friction-heavy parts of a buyer’s shopping journey and can make up for over 50 percent of interventions at self-checkouts. The process is slow, inconvenient and can even sometimes cause offence to a customer who is asked to show ID, even when the lines on their face and the (lack of) hairs on their head say clearer than any piece of paper that they are over 21.

However, a “card everyone” policy is often seen as the path of least resistance for businesses, who face hefty fines and the potential loss of license for selling age-restricted goods to a minor. Yet with no nationalised ID system, retail staff are faced with the near impossible challenge of deciphering hundreds of state driving licenses, along with military IDs, multiple government-issued IDs and foreign IDs.

So how do you safeguard against underage drinking without increasing staffing or adding friction to a buyer’s journey?

Remove human intervention from the equation

Age estimation technology has the potential to revolutionize the world of retail. Once integrated with a self-checkout, all a customer needs to do is look into the device’s camera and they have their age estimated in the flash of a camera shutter. This is not only much quicker for customers but can greatly reduce the friction between them and staff.

By removing human intervention, no blame is placed on the employee and the robustness of the age check isn’t influenced by human bias or mood. The technology is consistent, accurate and can be configured by a business to follow the same rule at all times. If the legal age for buying alcohol is 21, a business could configure the technology so that anyone that looks under 30 must prove their age by another method, such as a manual check by a member of staff or with the Yoti Digital ID. This is anchored by an ID document and sits on your phone. This fall back has a 100% pass rate because the user’s identity will have been verified by Yoti upon registration. Once a customer is at the checkout, they simply scan a QR code at the point-of-sale and share the fact that they are over the necessary age.

Protect customer privacy

Although it may feel revealing to see your face appear on a screen in front of you, age estimation is completely anonymous and privacy-centric. The technology works by taking a scan of the biometric template of a face, and depending on the threshold of interest that has been set by the business, it returns a “yes” or “no”. Once the estimated age has been given, the image is instantly deleted. No personal information is requested or retained and the technology is unable to “recognize” faces or attach a name to a photo.

Never deny a sale

No longer relying on an ID document to check the age of a customer not only speeds up transaction velocity but also allows your business to process more sales. A customer may quite easily leave their ID document at home, but a face is somewhat harder to misplace. If someone looks clearly above the legal drinking age, they should never be refused a sale. This makes for a much happier customer and a happier business too.

Don’t be fooled by fake IDs

Removing the need for ID documents also safeguards against fake ID documents, which are increasingly more commonplace and sophisticated. Age estimation technology can perform anti-spoofing measures in order to detect when someone is trying to alter their appearance such as wearing a mask or excessive makeup. The latter is a well-known method that a teenager might use to look older in front of a checkout assistant but age estimation technology is not so easily fooled.

Embrace the world of online sales

It’s currently extremely challenging to perform a satisfactory age check online. Methods range from manually inputting a date of birth, or only accepting credit card payments. However, age estimation technology can be embedded into websites or apps, allowing customers to be securely age checked from anywhere in the world by just looking into the camera on their device to perform an age scan. This has huge potential for not only retail but adult content sites, gambling and cryptocurrency wallets.

The future of retail

For an increasingly digital world that values privacy and speed, the potential of age estimation technology is boundless. If you want to know how to revolutionize your age-checking process, come and find us at the 2020 NGA Show at booth 1331 or get in touch.

by Amy Colville, Product Marketing Executive at Yoti

Yoti Age Scan is a secure age-checking solution that can estimate a person’s age by simply looking at their face. It’s rapid, anonymous and doesn’t request personal information or retain any images of the user. The state-of-the-art technology has wide application for the sale of any age-restricted goods and services, both online and in person.