Improving age verification

The subscription vaping-product brand, Shoreditch, says that it has developed, in partnership with Experian, a system ‘to stamp out’ online ordering by those under 18 years of age.

Shoreditch says that it is pioneering a new approach to online age verification for age-restricted tobacco and electronic cigarette products with Prove-ID, an identity checker that confirms online purchases are made by those of a lawful age. It has set itself a benchmark of 90 percent of over-18s.

The founder of Shoreditch, Ryan Shaw, was quoted in a company press note as saying that, as a responsible retailer, Shoreditch had long felt it was not enough for someone simply to tick a box to say they were over 18.

The company had therefore tasked Experian with helping it develop a better system.

Prove-ID age verification had an added age verification layer, which meant Shoreditch could reach its own target of 90 percent of sales to over 18s.

“Experian has been a dream to work with and the results have already exceeded our expectations,” Shaw said.

“Implementation with our website was quick and easy and the system is now up and running.

“We’ve worked closely with the implementation team at Experian to optimise our form fields in order to maximise our user-accept rate and ensure that ordering online is still convenient for our customers.

“Our pass rate is already 86 percent – and rising.”

Prove-ID is said to have been designed for organizations that need to verify the identity of their consumers in order to protect them.

It compared the customer information entered with more than one billion records held by Experian, the press note said.

From there, the system quickly made an informed decision about a customer’s age and either allowed her to proceed with the purchase or declined the order.

Shoreditch is at: www.vapeshoreditch.com