Stall library · Buy
An age check asks the AI agent for a date of birth
This stall is an age check over your store that will not let anyone in until they type a date of birth, or a year of birth. An AI agent shopping on someone’s behalf does not invent an identity, so it cannot answer the question, and the journey ends before a single product is seen. An age check that one click answers, such as a button that says I am of legal drinking age, is not this stall: the agent presses it and carries on.
Why the agent stops
Stores that sell alcohol often open with an age check drawn over the whole page. Many ask for one click. Some ask for a typed date in a day, month and year box, or a year of birth in a number field, sometimes beside a country select, and keep the page locked until the answer passes.
A person types their own birth date without thinking. An agent buying for someone has no birth date of its own to give, and making one up would be inventing an identity, which an honest agent does not do. So it stops at the check, and the store behind it cannot be browsed, compared or bought from.
How often we see this
Not stated here. A frequency means nothing without the cohort it was counted over, and this page is about one stall rather than one category. Where a category has enough stores measured at every stage, the share of them showing this stall is published on its benchmark page, with the methodology beside it.
See it for yourself
- Open your store in a private window, so no earlier answer is remembered.
- Look at what covers the page before you can see a product.
- If the only way past it is to type a date of birth or a year of birth, this is the stall.
What to change
- Ask for a one click confirmation, such as a button that says I am of legal drinking age, rather than a typed date of birth.
- Where the law or your own policy needs a real age check, keep it at checkout, where it applies to an actual purchase, rather than on the first page.
- Give the confirmation button a clear accessible name, and remember the answer for the rest of the visit.
What Ottom looks at
The journey agent looks for an age check over the page before it starts shopping. A check it can answer with one press, such as Yes, Enter or I am over 18, it answers yes and goes on, and nothing is reported. A check that asks for a typed date of birth or year of birth stops the walk, because the agent will not make one up, and raises this stall.
Questions
We sell alcohol. Do we have to remove our age check?
No. Some places and some retailer policies need an age check, and this finding is not about whether you have one. It is about its form. A typed date of birth on the first page stops an agent, and a one click confirmation does not. Where a real check is needed, keeping it at checkout covers the purchase without locking the whole store.
Why does the agent not just type a date of birth?
Because it is shopping on someone’s behalf and does not invent an identity for them. A made up birth date would be a false statement to your store, so the agent stops and reports the check instead.