SheerID Debuts In-Store Shopping ID Verification Tool

Identity verification firm SheerID has debuted a tool to authenticate in-store shopper IDs.

SheerID InStore, announced Thursday (March 14), allows retailers to more easily verify the eligibility of in-store customers for gated offers to “coveted communities” like students, teachers, and healthcare workers.

“With the addition of SheerID InStore, retailers have a full omnichannel solution that supports in-store, online and mobile-based shopping,” the company said in a news release.

“The SheerID InStore verification process also presents retailers with a new means of gathering valuable, first-party customer data, information they can incorporate into their data warehouse and loyalty programs to drive repeat purchases.”

According to the release, consumers can access a verification form by scanning a QR code provided by store operators. From there, they provide a few basic pieces of information to prove eligibility and get a UPC code that can be scanned at point of sale.

“The retailer can then stream the consumer-provided data to the customer’s profile or the retailer’s loyalty program for automatic future rewards and discounts to encourage additional purchases on any channel,” SheerID said.

The offering comes amid the rise of what PYMNTS Intelligence calls the Click-and-Mortar shopper: a consumer who is comfortable making both online and in-store purchases, so long as those transactions are free of friction.

“Convenience and consistency across shopping touch points are key with this group,” PYMNTS wrote last month. “The share of shoppers with these habits increased by a combined 38% across Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States since 2020.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “2024 Global Digital Shopping Index: The Rise of the Click-and-Mortar Shopper and What It Means for Merchants” — commissioned by Visa Acceptance Solutions — found that 39% of consumers in the seven countries studied worldwide are Click-and-Mortar shoppers.

While it’s easy to think of this as the digital era, physical stores are very important, with 71% of consumers seeing the physical store as central to their shopping experience — although most shop with some sort of digital feature assistance.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote Thursday on the latest retail sales data from Census Bureau, which showed that overall sales were up 0.6% month over month in February, reversing a 1.1% drop that had been seen in January.

“And given the fact that the ‘non-store retailers’ line item — generally used as a proxy for online sales — was down 0.1% month over month, the read across is that the spending happened on-site, in brick-and-mortar locations,” PYMNTS wrote.