Yoti Approved for Age-Restricted Purchases in UK Convenience Stores

Yoti users can now use the app for age-restricted purchases at convenience stores in the UK. The news comes after the Association of Convenience Stores agreed to recognize Yoti’s digital IDs, making it the first smartphone-based ID solution to make its way to Britain’s brick and mortar corner stores.

To implement the system, Yoti will supply shop owners with free QR code cards. Yoti users will then scan the cards with their smartphones, at which point they will be prompted to share their age with the store in question. The Yoti app will display the result and a current photo of the user, offering proof of age for people buying tobacco, lottery tickets, and other goods.

The new policy will cover all age restricted products with the exception of alcohol, which is subject to its own Mandatory Licensing Conditions. Yoti has previously been used to facilitate alcohol sales online, so the exception is a regulatory issue rather than a technological one.  

The new QR cards will come with shop-specific anti-spoofing symbols to ensure that underage people can’t use a screenshot of a successful age check.

The move into convenience stores is in keeping with Yoti’s efforts to explore the retail space. The company has been working towards age verification for self-checkout solutions, and recently partnered with FaceTec to upgrade its liveness detection capabilities.