Toolstation was established in 2003. Its first location, on Whiteladies Road, was a former petrol station in Clifton, Bristol. Hence the name “Toolstation”. This location is still one of our Bristol stores. Toolstation was designed from the outset to be truly multi-channel – with a catalogue, website and multiple sales counters, all offering the same products at the same price. In 2014, Toolstation became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Travis Perkins Group and now has more than 540 stores nationwide.
2021... And beyond
As one of Britain’s fastest-growing suppliers to the trade, we have big ambitions for the future. We will keep on opening stores, so no matter where our customers are working, we’re always just a short drive away. It’s our mission to continue expanding our loyal customer base, by focussing on our reliability of service and stock availability. In addition, we’re constantly improving our online offering, giving our customers even more access to our products, and streamlining the process to save them time and money.
We came across VerifyMyAge after noticing you partner with eBay.”
How did you first hear about VerifyMyAge?
We came across VerifyMyAge after noticing you partner with eBay to provide age verification for sellers in their Tobacco and e-cigarette, and Alcohol categories. We also sell via the eBay platform.
What challenge did you face, which led to you contacting us?
We have a huge range of over 20,000 trade quality products from top brands and some of these need age verification checks as required by the Offensive Weapons Act. Our existing solution was manual in nature and left room for improvement within the customer journey. We also wanted to improve verification pass rates, order processing times, and decrease the number of refund requests which result in reduced revenue and leave customers without the products they need.
We were looking for a solution that provided our customers with the widest range of verification methods on the market.
What were you looking for in an age verification solution?
First and foremost we were looking for a solution that provided our customers with the widest range of verification methods on the market, an optimised customer experience, and one that was robust and secure, both from a legal and technical perspective. We also wanted a solution that was easy and quick to integrate, as well as being fully customisable in order to align with the Toolstation brand and our needs.
What made VerifyMyAge stand out over other solutions on the market?
Discovering that VerifyMyAge worked with global companies such as eBay meant we instantly knew it was a brand that we could trust. In addition, VerifyMyAge is rated Excellent on Trustpilot with over 2,000 reviews, demonstrating that exceptional customer experience sits at the very heart of their philosophy.
Finally, VerifyMyAge is certified under ISO27001, UK GDPR and the PAS1296: Age Check Certification Scheme, all of which allow us to know our brand and most importantly our customers are in safe hands.
We’ve been most impressed with how frictionless the VerifyMyAge solution is.
How easy was the integration?
Upgrading our age verification solution was a considerable internal project that impacted many teams within the business. All stakeholders found the integration process to be seamless and the VMA API very intuitive and easy to use as well as leaving room for customisation. All of these allowed us to integrate in a bespoke way to meet our complex business needs.
How did VerifyMyAge help with the overall implementation of the solution?
The VerifyMyAge technical and on boarding teams were very helpful during the implementation process and were always on hand to answer questions or provide guidance.
What have you been most impressed with?
We’ve been most impressed with how frictionless the VerifyMyAge solution is. The vast majority of our customers are verified in ‘stealth’ meaning they don’t have to actively engage with the VMA solution, and those that do are able to move through the flow quickly and seamlessly. The result is absolutely minimal disruption to customer journeys, which was one of our primary objectives at the start of the project.
Feedback from our customers it’s been very positive.
What key metrics have you seen improvement on since the first implementation?
From an early stage, we saw a reduction in order cancellations of age-restricted products by around 50%. The automated nature of the solution also allowed us to reposition the equivalent of 2.5 employees who were previously solely focused on processing manual age checks.
How have your customers found the experience using VerifyMyAge?
Where we’ve had feedback from our customers it’s been very positive, even more so when they compare the experience to the previous, more manual process. To be honest, though, we don’t receive a huge amount of feedback from our customers regarding age verification, which in itself can be viewed as a big positive!
Is there anything else we should know about?
Nothing specific other than that, based on our own experience, we would happily recommend VerifyMyAge to other businesses looking for a new or alternative age verification solution.
Get in touch.
Have questions? Let's chat. We’re always on-hand to discuss age verification.
