Comparing identity verification providers for retailers

Retailers need to watch out for fraud at several points in the customer journey, not just at checkout. For example, someone might use a fake ID to buy an age-restricted product, create multiple accounts to take advantage of promotions, or provide false information when requesting a refund.

Identity verification can help retailers spot these risks, but choosing the right provider isn't just about comparing features. You also need to consider which countries each provider covers, how easy it is to integrate into your existing systems, and whether your team can manage verification checks without adding too much manual work.

In this guide, we compare three identity verification providers for retailers: GBG, Persona and Veriff. We'll look at their capabilities, integration options and how they support retailers with everyday verification and fraud prevention.

Identity verification providers for retailers compared*

GBG: Identity, address, and age verification for retailers

We’ll kick things off by introducing ourselves. GBG is an identity verification and KYC/KYB provider that covers a lot of ground, including: customer identity checks, address intelligence, age verification and fraud intelligence. 

If you’re a retailer who needs several of these at once, GBG Go can save you from stitching together separate vendors. Here’s a closer look at what the platform offers: 

• Customer identity verification: Instead of trusting a single match, multi-source identity verification checks what a customer tells you against several data sources. If one source comes up empty, you still have others to lean on.
• Document verification: Covers 8,500+ ID types across 195+ countries, which comes in handy when your shoppers are spread across different markets.
• Address intelligence: Verifies addresses across 250 countries and territories. Addresses that look inaccurate or manipulated can also be a sign of fraud worth a closer look.
• Age verification: Helps you confirm that a customer is eligible to buy before the order goes through.
• Retail fraud intelligence: GBG Trust draws on identity intelligence across 28+ sectors, so it can spot suspicious patterns you might not see in your own customer data alone. What’s more, real-time monitoring flags anomalies and high-velocity activity, like repeated account creation or identity details that keep changing, both of which can point to promotion abuse.
• Configurable workflows: GBG Go brings all of the above together in one place through a unified API and 110+ KYC modules. Its visual, no-code workflow builder lets you configure which checks run for different retail activities and markets. Verification results can feed into your connected systems to support customer decisions. 

“The customer is truly able to customize how they use our products, how they layer in the solutions, and what they want to verify first before moving on to the next step,” explains GBG Senior Fraud Analyst Kendra Carroll.

If GBG is not quite the right fit for you, here are two other options to consider:

Persona

Persona’s no-code editor lets you design workflows around your own onboarding and customer verification requirements.

• Flexible checks for different moments: Mix and match document verification, database checks, biometrics, and phone and email verification depending on how much certainty you need. 
• Real-time fraud checks with Graph: You can also bring Graph into your workflows to run checks in real time, then flag or block likely fraudsters before they get anywhere. That helps with account takeover and promo abuse, plus marketplace collusion (where fake sellers and fake buyers team up to pull money out of stolen credit cards).

Veriff

Veriff covers the core checks you're likely to need as a retailer: database and document verification, biometrics, age validation, and proof of address. A few highlights include:

• Automated or human-backed verification: You can choose how much human involvement you want. One option is fully automated and AI-based. The other is also highly automated, but trained verification specialists back up the AI, which can be reassuring when you’d like a person in the loop on trickier cases.
• Help for customers in the moment: Veriff walks shoppers through the document verification process with real-time feedback, so they know what’s happening at each step. The same goes for selfies. Assisted Image Capture tells customers right away if something’s wrong with the image, which means fewer retakes and fewer people giving up halfway.
• Veriff for Marketplaces: If you run a marketplace, Veriff for Marketplaces pairs AI-powered identity verification and biometrics with continuous fraud detection, so checks don’t stop once someone has signed up.

Read more: E-commerce fraud prevention: How to fight Black Friday fraud

How to evaluate your shortlisted identity verification providers

Once a few platforms look like they meet your requirements…

• Test providers against real customer cases: Build a test dataset that mirrors your actual customer mix: international shoppers, a range of document types, and plenty of edge cases. Include both genuine transactions and known fraud attempts so you can compare pass rates, referral volumes, and processing times side by side.
• Check coverage in the markets that matter to you: Global coverage numbers only tell part of the story. Ask for performance data for the specific countries you sell into, and watch for gaps in address validation or regional data sources. Also confirm that your quote includes the exact datasets, document types and features you need.
• Review implementation and maintenance workload: Map out how verification data will move between the provider and your ecommerce platform, CRM or fraud tools. Also find out more about ongoing maintenance, API updates and workflow changes once you’ve launched.
• Evaluate analyst investigation tools: Let your fraud team try each vendor’s review interface on realistic cases. Track how long cases take to resolve, and ask the analysts who’ll use the software every day what they think. They’ll spot friction that a demo might not show.
• Compare total cost across identical volumes: Build your pricing estimate from projected transaction volumes, expected retry rates and your busiest sales periods. Don’t forget internal costs like manual reviews, integration upkeep and any minimum commitment tiers.

Final thoughts on choosing the right identity verification provider for your retail business

The best identity verification provider for your retail business will depend on the types of fraud you're dealing with, where your customers are based, and which verification checks you need. Before making a decision, consider your main use cases and test how well each provider fits into your existing workflows.

If you're looking for a solution that combines identity verification, global address intelligence, cross-industry fraud signals, and configurable decisioning, GBG is worth considering. GBG Go lets you bring these capabilities together in one workflow, helping your team manage verification and fraud prevention without juggling multiple tools.

FAQs

What is identity verification for retailers?

Identity verification for retailers is the process of confirming that a customer is who they claim to be during account creation, checkout, or account recovery. Retailers use identity verification to prevent account takeover, stop promotion abuse, verify age eligibility for restricted goods, and reduce chargeback losses.

Why do online retailers need address verification alongside identity checks?

Address verification standardizes and validates shipping and billing addresses against postal databases. It prevents shipping delays caused by invalid formatting and flags address manipulation, which is a common indicator of card-not-present fraud.

How does identity verification prevent promotion abuse and refund fraud?

Identity verification tools analyze customer data, device signals, and cross-industry intelligence to spot people creating multiple accounts or using fake details. 

By detecting duplicate identities in real time, retailers can block fraudulent promo redemptions before they go through. The same signals can also flag suspicious refund requests for review before a refund is approved.

*Disclaimer: Information relating to third-party products and companies referenced in this article is based on publicly available sources and official publications at the time of writing. 

While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, product features, positioning and company information may change and GBG does not guarantee that all information remains current or complete. Nothing in this article constitutes an endorsement, recommendation or ranking of any third-party provider. Readers should consult each provider’s official website and conduct their own assessment before making any purchasing decisions. 

To request an update or correction, please contact press@gbg.com.

Sources: 

https://withpersona.com/product/flow-editor

https://withpersona.com/product/dynamic-flow

https://withpersona.com/product/graph

https://www.veriff.com/

https://www.veriff.com/product/identity-verification

https://www.veriff.com/industry/marketplaces