5 Tips to Strengthen Your Wine Shipment with Age Verification Machine

Kaitlyn Dhavernas
Aug 9, 2017 · 4 min read

“Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.”

Ernest Hemingway has beautifully portrayed his love for wine in this quote. This is perhaps the feeling of everyone. Who doesn’t like to take a sip of such divine taste? The wine has always been popular in our society. In the modern society, it has become easily available due to direct-to-consumer wine shipments.

It’s good that direct-to-consumer shipment has become popular in the wine market. Every coin has two sides. The good side is not unknown to us. But, how many of us are aware of its bad side? A couple of months ago, California police made an attempt and arrested 50 people in Sacramento area in their underage enforcement operation.

I hope, now you can assume the outcome. Wine shipment has become so easy that minors are misusing it. In a state like California where age verification requirements are very strict, wine merchants are found to be less concerned about this issue. Well, the incident stated above is a burning example, isn’t it? This kind of dealings can drag a business into real troubles. In order to avoid such situation, each wine merchant should use age verification machine or scanner. If you haven’t started using it to track the real age of your wine customers, you are playing with danger.

In this era where kids can’t even breathe without the Internet, age verification protocols are mandatory for the direct selling industry. I have listed a few tips to help you maintain the age verification protocols.

1. Look for the Common Carriers

Each wine shipment must abide by this guideline. No excuse is entertained. You need to work with your carrier ( like GSO, FedEx, UPS etc) to make sure the packages have been labeled properly for alcohol. Apart from this, you should check IDs and get signatures of each of your adult customers upon delivery. In this context, it is important to note that each state has a different set of law regarding wine shipment. Therefore, you should research on those states you are going to ship to maintain the law properly.

2. Add an Age Affirmation Gate to Your website/Mobile App/ Store

Having a website or a mobile app is pretty common for businesses. You should add a feature to your site or app that can compel the visitors to confirm that they are not underaged by checking a pop up prior to stepping into your website, mobile app, or shopping cart. There are many companies who are unwilling to add this feature in fear of damage to their search engine optimization (SEO). It would not be a big deal if you find out the ways to keep up with both online age verification and SEO. It is not impossible or a daunting task, believe me!

It would be better if you post “Followers need to be of legal drinking age” on all of your social media platforms to be safe from your side.

3. Keep Birth Records of the Customers

You should maintain the record of the birth dates of your customers with the help of an age verification machine for future reference. Whenever the purchasers are adding wines to their carts, they should be asked for providing their date of birth. This record will be helpful for audit purpose as well.

4. Verify the Identity of the Purchasers

At the time of delivery, you should ask the purchasers to show their IDs. It will strengthen the security system of your shipping service.

5. Verify the Age of the Recipients for Gift Orders

When you are receiving gift orders, you should assure the age of the recipient as well. You can run an online age verification machine or tool to check on the age of the recipient.

A Final Takeaway

It is crystal clear from the entire discussion that wine industry should not run without an age verification machine in this digital era where kids and teenagers are using Internet to get around the commonly stringent restrictions upon the sale of wine and similar other beverages. Well, I can assume a sign of anxiety on the face of my reader. Relax! Just follow the tips provided in this article to take your business to the next level without any hassle.

Are you looking for more information on age verification machine or legal issues? Please feel free to write to us!

Kaitlyn Dhavernas

Written by

Kaitlyn Dhavernas, a technical writer, takes interest in technology and pens down informative blogs on the use of technology to maintain information security.

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