Customer Identity Verification Tools: The Best Apps to Protect Your Ecommerce Store

Ecommerce businesses come with challenges of their own. These days, online businesses are coming across dynamic challenges such as fraud, which results in huge financial losses. It has become essential for e-businesses and Shopify store owners to proactively deal with these threats and protect themselves from losses. One of the best and most basic ways to reduce fraud is to establish a solid identity verification mechanism. With systematic customer identity verification, businesses can know who their customers are and whether or not they’re using fraudulent or stolen cards.

The main benefits of Identity verification apps is that they help prevent fraud (and chargebacks), increase trust, and ensure regulatory compliance.

Leading Identity Verification Tools

There are several ID verification tools and apps available out there - each of them has its pros and cons. As an ecommerce business, consider incorporating one of these into your business to ensure compliance with local regulations, accurate customer identity verification, as well as ensuring safe and secure transactions on your website or app.

Terminology Explained:

• KYC (Know Your Customer) is a process used by payment providers and other businesses to verify the identity of their customers. This is done to help prevent fraud, money laundering, and other criminal activities.
• KYX (Know Your Counterparty) is a similar process, but it is used to verify the identity of the other party in a transaction. This is important because it can help businesses to identify and avoid doing business with high-risk counterparties.

I'll be running through the most popular ID verification tools and briefly explaining what you need to know about them. Let’s get started:

Stripe Identity

Website: www.stripe.com/identity

This add-on service from Stripe is a powerful tool that offers document verification, biometric authentication, and risk assessment. These features enable businesses to authenticate customer identities and detect potential fraudulent activities. By implementing Stripe Identity, ecommerce businesses and mobile apps can enhance security, protect sensitive customer information, and build trust and credibility with their customers

Integration: provides seamless integration with popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, making it convenient for businesses to implement and manage.

Jumio

Website: www.jumio.com

Jumio offers end-to-end identity verification for ecommerce businesses and is based on its database of over 500 million identities across the globe. The whole idea of Jumio is to seamlessly integrate identity verification into an ecommerce business interface. It leverages machine learning and facial recognition to help reduce instances of fraud. The high cost of service of Jumio makes it difficult for small ecommerce businesses to sign up with this ID verification platform.

Integration: Jumio has plugins for popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce etc.

Jumio's ID verification solutions are used by companies such as Coinbase, Monese, and Revolut.

Onfido

Website: www.onfido.com

Onfido helps businesses comply with security rules and regulations and assists them in offering a more secure, reliable service to customers. It helps consolidate KYC checks, saving the time and effort to process large volumes of identity verification requests. It is easy to use and integrate into existing systems and offers proactive customer support, making Onfido a preferred choice among ecommerce businesses. The complication and lengthy verification process are some of the main drawbacks of Onfido and may prove detrimental to user experience.

Integration: Onfido has plugins for popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce etc.

Onfido's Verification Suite is utilized by companies like Remitly and Zipcar

Veriff

Website: www.veriff.com

Veriff is an AI-powered, automated identity verification tool that leverages machine learning and cloud technology to help businesses connect with trustworthy customers. It delivers real-time accurate results and helps ecommerce businesses tackle security gaps instantly. Veriff renders numerous benefits to ecommerce businesses, but it also has two drawbacks - lack of customization and the high cost factor.

Integration: Veriff has plugins for popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce etc.

Veriff's ID verification software is used by companies including Wise (formerly TransferWise), Turo, and Xolo.

SheerID

Website: www.sheerid.com

SheerID helps e-businesses filter customers to secure exclusive offers, discounts, and promotions. It verifies the identity of customers via a custom tool that is created per the requirements of the business. The robust verification mechanism of Veriff is just what online businesses require to ensure only a select group of customers have access to exclusive offers. Setting up SheerID and integrating it with your existing system is complex and time-consuming.

SheerID's identity verification services are used by companies like Spotify, Adobe, and Target.

IDology

Formerly known as IdentityMind Global

Website: www.idology.com

IDology assists businesses in building, maintaining, and analyzing customer identities. This makes it easier for businesses to verify customer identities and conduct risk-based authentication, which helps detect and prevent fraud.

IDology KYC and AML solutions are used by companies such as BitPay, Paxful, and Uphold

ID Analyzer

Website: www.idanalyzer.com

ID Analyzer is a comprehensive software platform that offers a wide range of solutions and products to assist e-commerce business owners in enhancing their operations. With features such as identity verification, document OCR scanning, and biometric verification, ID Analyzer ensures secure transactions and safeguards against fraud. By integrating ID Analyzer into their platform, e-commerce business owners can create a more intelligent and secure environment that protects both their customers and their business interests.

ID Analyzer's identity verification software is utilized by companies including Stripe, Airbnb, and Uber.

But why should I consider using an ID Verification tool when my payment provider already does this?

There are many scenarios where an ecommerce business would need this extra layer of protection. It's really about your need as a business and how this impacts you. Below are some examples of scenarios of when to consider adding this additional layer of security:

• When selling high-value items: Ecommerce businesses that sell high-value items, such as jewelry or electronics, may want to use an identity verification app to reduce the risk of fraud. This could be implemented at checkout or post-purchase.
• When selling age-restricted items: Ecommerce businesses that sell age-restricted items, such as alcohol or tobacco products, may want to use an identity verification app to ensure that the customer is of legal age to purchase the item.
• When selling to new customers: Ecommerce businesses may want to use an identity verification app to verify the identity of new customers, especially if the customer is making a large purchase.
• When "onboarding" new customers: Ecommerce businesses and mobile apps may want to verify the identity or details of their users as part of the onboarding or signup process.
• When complying with regulations: Ecommerce businesses that are subject to regulations, such as financial institutions or healthcare providers, may need to use an identity verification app to comply with those regulations.

What aspects should you consider when picking a customer identity verification tool?

The first thing you need to consider is the type of verification you’d require for your business - whether it’s facial recognition, document scanning, or liveness detection. You can choose either of these depending on the nature and scale of your business.

The next aspect is the level of accuracy and fraud protection you’d need to ensure the safety of your business. Apart from this, you’d also have to consider the cost of service (both the subscription cost and per transaction costs), the ease of integration with your existing platform. You can then zero into a customer verification tool for your business.

Which businesses could benefit from this service, and why is it essential for payment providers to opt for it?

Fraudulent transactions cost businesses a lot from a financial and goodwill perspective. Customers are aware of and prefer secure, safe websites where their sensitive details are not vulnerable. Apart from securing your business, a customer identification tool can help you build trust in your target audience.

Is Stripe a good customer identification tool?

Stripe Identity is an additional paid-for service that offers built-in risk control and fraud prevention features. It captures images of the user and their photo ID to verify customer identity. It also uses this captured data to improve its biometric verification technology. But if you’re looking for more advanced customer identity verification mechanisms, consider other tools, like Jumio, Onfido, and other examples we’ve mentioned above.

What is Dynamic 3D Secure offered by Mollie?

While it's not an identification tool, dynamic 3D Secure is a feature from Mollie that helps provide additional layers of security to online transactions. The 3D Secure mechanism embeds the authentication process in the checkout flow, resulting in a frictionless authentication flow. It also helps users reduce the risk of losing money via chargebacks. Integrating Dynamic 3D Secure into your existing systems can help elevate the overall security of your online business.

Are there any other payment providers that offer ID verification as a paid-for feature on their platform?

Paypal, Square, and Payline are some additional payment service providers that offer ID verification as a paid-for feature on their platforms.

Summing Up

The requirements, nature, and scale of your business are some essential aspects you have to consider when choosing an ID verification tool for your business. The best tool is the one that perfectly fits your criteria and is priced accurately, too.

Investing in identity verification tools can maximise the security of your business, increase conversions and improve the quality of services you offer to your customers.