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If you work in the high-street retail sector, you’re probably familiar with a surge in business during the festive season.
As families return together and ask ‘politely’ to do a shift or two in the family business to help tackle the increased demands, compliance with age-restricted sales still needs to be observed with the same diligence as quieter points of the year. Even larger chains of local convenience stores look to hire more people during the period to provide more accessible opening hours in the run-up to Christmas, Hanukkah and other festivities. All additional hires must also be familiar with the protocol and expectations that come with the selling of age-restricted products.
Age checks play a crucial role in ensuring legal compliance and fostering a responsible retail environment, particularly in industries that handle age-restricted products. Initiatives like the UK’s “Challenge 25” and similar age verification laws worldwide emphasise the importance of verifying customers’ ages. However, this responsibility often falls on temporary or less experienced workers, such as students, who are commonly employed during busy seasonal periods. For these employees, navigating age verification processes can be daunting, especially when relying on subjective judgment.
Advanced biometric technology offers a solution. These tools can accurately estimate a customer’s age during the sale of age-restricted goods, seamlessly aligning with compliance initiatives like Challenge 25. By providing real-time, consistent and unbiased assessments, such systems remove much of the uncertainty from the process. This empowers less experienced staff members by reducing hesitation and streamlining age checks, allowing them to focus on delivering good customer service while maintaining legal standards.
What you will learn in this blog:
For retailers, selling age-restricted products like alcohol, tobacco, or vaping supplies involves a legal responsibility to confirm customer age. The “Challenge 25” rule requires ID verification for any customer who appears under 25. Adhering to these standards prevents underage sales and protects retailers from fines and reputational damage. Society expects companies to be vigilant about preventing underage people from accessing these products, and failure to do so can hurt a business’s credibility.
But compliance is increasingly challenging. Strict age-verification laws, combined with young people attempting to appear older—particularly during festive Christmas nights out—place an even greater burden on inexperienced staff during the holiday period, who may already be stretched thin. While performing age checks reliably and consistently is essential, it can lead to tense encounters between employees and customers. This is why having the right age-check solutions in place for your employees is so important.
In practice, asking for ID can lead to uncomfortable situations for staff, especially when customers react negatively. For some stores, up to 75% of abusive incidents reported by employees are connected to age verification. Verbal abuse and intimidation from customers who resist age checks can make employees feel unsafe and damage morale.This is even more so the case during the festive winter period. Temporary employees and even family members, may understand the basics when it comes to scanning items and manning the tills, but might feel threatened or intimidated to ask a person if they’re old enough to buy age-restricted items. Refusal of service remains one of the biggest threats of violence towards shop workers, whilst this isn’t acceptable to anyone, this problem is particularly tough on younger or seasonal employees who may lack confidence in challenging customers.
In turn, the cycle of high turnover and repeated training for new hires continues to add to the burden on retailers. Not only is employee wellbeing at risk, but customer experience may also suffer.
Aside from social and emotional costs, age checks create financial pressures. Retailers relying on manual ID checks must regularly train employees, which can be costly. Each check, whilst essential for compliance, adds up. The cost of these checks continues to rise as more age-restricted products enter the market and retailers face increased scrutiny.
Given the challenges of manual age checks, automated age estimation is becoming a popular solution. This technology uses biometric facial analysis to assess whether a customer appears over the age threshold, such as 25, for “Challenge 25” compliance. By analysing facial features, age estimation technology can instantly determine if a customer looks above the age limit, reducing the need for employees to check IDs.
If a customer appears over the required age, the transaction proceeds without delay. For those who appear younger, staff can then request ID. This reduces the frequency of ID requests, lowering the chances of confrontation and creating a safer environment for employees.
This can add a level of extra protection for the less experienced seasonal employees working in your retail space. For a sector with high staff turnover, fostering a safe and supportive environment is crucial. With age estimation technology, retailers can better manage the age-verification process, allowing employees to focus on what matters: providing excellent service and ensuring a positive, compliant shopping experience.
For a more comprehensive breakdown of how to perform an age check, download our “Everything You Need to Know About Challenge 25.”