Scandit launches automated age-verification for faster, more compliant self-checkout

Scandit, a smart data capture provider, has announced Age Verified Self-Checkout. A new solution that helps retailers automate age-restricted self-checkout purchases. It will reduce lane delays, minimise unnecessary associate intervention, and strengthen compliance.

The solution is built for retailers selling products such as alcohol, tobacco and medication. Age Verified Self-Checkout delivers a fully autonomous checkout with no additional kiosk hardware needed. It will solve the need for store associates to manually intervene, one of the biggest sources of friction in self-checkout. Each year, there are 9 billion age-restricted, self-checkout transactions globally

With this solution, 80% of age checks are resolved automatically in seconds. This removes the need for associate intervention, while the verification process is 6x faster for the customer. The streamlined checks result in 5% more transactions across a retailer’s full self-checkout fleet. The expectation is that this will lead to shorter queues and increased sales, especially during peak hours.

The solution turns a customer’s smartphone into a private, secure age-verification tool. Enabling shoppers to confirm their age in under 10 seconds. All this is achieved without downloading an app, primarily through facial age estimation or, alternatively, by scanning their ID.

Improving operations

Age Verified Self-Checkout helps retailers avoid the cost and maintenance burden of hardware-based alternatives. It helps them improve operations in three key areas:

• Fraud prevention: The photo-comparison technology catches underage ID fraud that card-reader solutions cannot and that associates may not. This includes underage customers using someone else’s ID.
• Labour optimisation: Automation frees store associates from routine age checks and uncomfortable situations, while allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks.
• Revenue lift: The always-available solution keeps self-checkout lanes moving, leading to increased sales.

Retailers under pressure to deliver faster

According to Christian Floerkemeier, CTO and Co-founder of Scandit, “Retailers are under pressure to deliver faster, more convenient self-checkout experiences. Yet age-restricted sales remain a persistent bottleneck and one that only intensifies as self-checkout fleets scale.

“Today, retailers are forced to choose between absorbing the ongoing labour cost of manual checks. Or investing in proprietary hardware, neither of which scales efficiently. Age Verified Self-Checkout removes this trade-off by automating compliance in a fast, secure and hardware-free way. The new solution reduces intervention and optimises labour.”

Supported by Scandit Smart Data Capture with vision AI, the solution marks Scandit’s first entry into biometrics. Scandit says it has designed the solution with privacy at its core. The system processes data 100% on-device. Neither Scandit nor retailers transmit or store biometric or ID data.

This approach ensures complete data sovereignty for every verification. It also complies with key standards, including GDPR, CCPA, ISO/IEC 27566-1, ISO 27001, and UKAS Challenge 25 certification.

Take a Selfie, Complete Your Shop

Age-Verified Self-Checkout uses a selfie-first design. This approach verifies most shoppers in a single step. The system prioritises speed and intuition. When a shopper scans a restricted item at self-checkout, the kiosk displays a QR code. The shopper scans the code with their smartphone, which opens a verification page in the browser. The customer then takes a quick selfie, and on-device vision AI estimates their age instantly.

If the estimate is above the retailer’s threshold, the checkout continues automatically. If the estimate drops below the threshold, the system prompts the customer to scan an ID. The device reads this ID locally, and it then compares the data against the selfie photo.

No external servers process this sensitive information. The comparison happens instantly on the user’s device. It will help detect underage customers attempting to use someone else’s ID. The kiosk then receives a single pass/fail signal.

Age Verification Self-Checkout serves grocery, supermarket, fuel, and convenience retailers. These businesses handle high self-checkout volumes and face strong demand for age-restricted products. They operate with limited store labour.

Enterprise Times: What this means for businesses

This is an interesting development in retail. For retailers, this means self-checkout could become faster, less labour-intensive and more commercially viable for age-restricted products. Age verification is currently one of the main points where staff still need to intervene. It creates queues and reduces the efficiency gains that self-checkout is supposed to deliver.

By automating most checks through a shopper’s own smartphone, retailers could keep lanes moving and reduce pressure on store associates. This will potentially increase transaction volumes during busy trading periods.

It also strengthens the case for scaling self-checkout without adding expensive dedicated hardware or increasing compliance risk. If the privacy and accuracy claims hold up in real-world deployments, retailers in grocery, convenience, fuel and supermarket formats could use this to improve customer experience while maintaining tighter controls around alcohol, tobacco, medication and other restricted goods.

However, adoption will depend on shopper trust and regulatory acceptance in each market. The question is, “How will the system handle edge cases such as poor connectivity, low smartphone access or customers who are uncomfortable with biometric-style verification?

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