The explosion of the internet is pushing businesses towards the digital sphere. In order to survive the competitive market, This is th organizations need to digitize their operations and mark their presence on the internet for enhanced customer experience.e reason why the trend of online shopping is increasing with every passing day. Every brick-to-mortal shop is readily shifting their store online to attract more customers.
Though the internet has provided the retailers with another platform to promote and expand their business, on the other hand it has also raised some challenges for the businesses. One of the major concerns is the online selling of age-restricted products. In physical shopping, the retailer can identify the age by analyzing the child’s appearance. But in the case of online shopping, it is quite difficult – nearly impossible – to be ensured of the age of the buyers.
The Duty of Retailers
In the previous few years, some deadly incidents have been reported that occurred due to unsolicited purchases of age-restricted items. One of them took place back in 2014 when a student purchased the knife online from Amazon and stabbed a schoolboy brutally resulting in death. That wasn’t the only case. Taking into account these incidents, the government and regulatory agencies have imposed strict obligations on the retailers regarding the selling of age-restricted products to minors.
Whenever such incidents take place, people blame parents for their negligence that they didn’t keep an eye on their children. But in actual, it is the duty of the retailers to protect the children. It is their responsibility to assure that they are not selling age-restricted items online to minors. In order to sell age-restricted products like alcohol, cigarettes, etc. online, the retailers need to presents effective systems to prevent underage customers from accessing these products.
While integrating age verification systems, the legal requirements must be taken into account by the retailers to meet the due diligence and avoiding any type of offense that can land them in legal problems. Moreover, the systems and retailing operations like a shipment of products must be monitored regularly to identify and rectify any weak point – keeping pace with the advance technology.
Age Verification Checks
To hinder minors from buying processing online and accessing them, age verification is the peAge verification is the perfect solution. However, in a fast-moving in the digital world, it is quite challenging to implement the best verification check. The traditional ways of authenticating the age of the customers totally relied on the customers’ consent, i.e. the prompt message asking the users click I agree if you are 18+. But how can you guarantee that the customer is not lying about his age?
In online age verification, through identity and facial verification, the retailers can confirm the age of the users not only at the time of account creation but also at the time of checkout to ensure that only the authorized person is buying the products.
Age Verification on Delivery:
Even after the technology advancement, some websites require purchasers to register their details at the time of setting up the account. It means that they might be using age verification checks only at initial stages. Sometimes even can children purchase prohibited products using someone else account. To prevent this, the retailers must ensure that the products are received by the authorized owners only not the minors at the time of shipment.
Also Read: Guide To Recession-Proof Your Business
