Retail technology innovations expose risk of underage sales
The rapid delivery space, which has exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, is exposing retailers to risk around sales of age restricted goods, according to research from Serve Legal.
In the last 12 months, more than 2,600 of its young mystery shoppers have made test purchases using online or app-based rapid delivery services.
Just 45% were asked to show proof of age when their order was delivered, despite it containing alcohol, cigarettes and other age restricted products. Standard home delivery services fared better with 72% of mystery shoppers asked for age identification on delivery.
Both lag well behind retailer performance in-store where mystery shoppers were 52% more likely to be asked for proof of age (78% pass rate). In supermarket tests, 77% of mystery shoppers were asked for proof of age when buying age-restricted goods, rising to 81% in convenience stores.
But even within bricks and mortar stores, there are issues. In 8,000 test purchases of restricted goods using self-scan checkouts, 73% of the mystery shoppers were asked to produce proof of age, compared to 79% who used a conventional checkout with a member of staff (13,150 in-store test purchases).
Ed Heaver, Director at Serve Legal, says: “Offering extensive choice around how, when and where consumers shop is clearly a priority for retailers and brings major benefits in terms of convenience, ease and speed.”
“But as retail technology, and rapid delivery models in particular, continue to advance apace, human interaction between staff and customers is being dramatically reduced.”
“Retailers may have age identification measures like screening checks and facial recognition on their websites or apps, but these are toothless if delivery drivers are failing to ask for physical proof of age or are leaving goods unattended on the doorstep.”
Heaver notes that bricks and mortar retailers have been working hard for the last ten years to improve their performance around underage sales, with initiatives like Challenge 25, committing to regular testing programmes and improving staff and management training.
It’s time that more online retailers and their delivery partners did the same, he argues, particularly in the rapid delivery market where pressure to deliver orders as quickly as possible may be compromising diligence around age checks.
Heaver concludes: “Urgent action is needed and no responsible retailer or delivery company should be handing harmful goods to a young person without asking to see physical proof of age, like a passport, photocard driving licence or PASS accredited (Proof of Age Standards Scheme) identification.”
“In our experience, when retailers commit to regular auditing of their age check diligence, their performance improves exponentially.”
