How to create an age verification popup for Shopify

If you’re selling age-restricted products, you must implement age verification – that goes without saying. An easy way to do that is by placing a so-called “age gate”: a fullscreen popup that visitors can only close by verifying their age.

Here is an example of age verification for Shopify implemented on a popup 👇

Now, this is how the age gate works. It pops up as soon as a visitor lands on your website, or a particular page of your website, and covers the content on the page. If a visitor hits I’M OVER 18, the popup closes. If a visitor hits I’M UNDER 18, the button redirects them to any URL of your choice.

This age verification popup is fully customizable. You can change the text and background image, add a checkbox and adjust audience targeting.

In the tutorial below, we’ll show you how to add an age gate like this one to your store using Getsitecontrol – a no-code popup builder for Shopify.

How to add age verification to Shopify

Even if you’re a non-techie, Getsitecontrol makes it easy to add an age gate to your website. There’s no need to deal with the code or change your Shopify theme. Essentially, all you need to do is select a template from the gallery and adjust its content to your website.

Before getting started, go to the Shopify App Store and add Getsitecontrol to your Shopify store. Next, find Getsitecontrol in ‘Apps’ in your Shopify dashboard and open it to log in.

Step 1. Select an age verification template

Once in the Getsitecontrol dashboard, hit Explore popular use cases and select ‘Add age verification.’

You’ll be taken to the gallery featuring age verification templates. Click on the templates to see them in the full-screen mode and once you find the one you like, proceed to ‘Take this template.’

Step 2. Revise the copy

To change the copy, click on it right on the template and type your text instead. For instance, we’ve changed 18 to 21 in the title and button text in the example below 👇

If you want to include more details, you can add a description and notes – the latter will be placed under the buttons.

Step 3. Adjust button-click settings

This template is designed to redirect underage visitors elsewhere. For example, you can send them to the search engine, another page of your website, or wherever you want. To do that, you need to assign a URL redirect to the I’M UNDER 21 button click: just hit the button on the template and paste the URL to the corresponding field.

Notice the checkbox: by default, the page you redirect them to will open in a new tab. Whether you want to keep this box checked or not, is up to you.

The I’M OVER 21 button is set up to close the popup and let visitors start shopping at your store.

Step 4. Adjust the background image

Based on your industry, you may want to replace the background image as well. To do that, hit on the image and proceed to change it. You can import your own creative from the computer or type any relevant keyword in the search field and select a stock image from the built-in gallery.

If you’d like to change the font, style, or color theme of the popup, use the Theme menu at the top.

Want to see how your age gate will look on mobile screens? Switch to the mobile preview mode at the bottom.

To test every screen resolution, use the dropdown menu next to the mobile button.

Step 5. Decide where to display the popup

Now to the most exciting part: audience targeting. By default, the age gate will pop up on every page of your website as soon as visitors arrive. However, every store is different and sometimes, you may need to require age verification:

• on selected pages only
• for products by certain vendors
• or to visitors from certain locations

For instance, if the law has different age requirements for shoppers from different areas, you can create multiple popups: one for each audience segment.

To apply the right settings, use the Targeting tab 👇

The first control on the screenshot will help you include or exclude your website pages from targeting. The second control allows you to select a group of people based on their location or a group of pages containing a certain product vendor or tag.

The third control, named Stop to display the widget is designed to make sure you don’t pester your visitors by displaying the popup repeatedly. You can set the condition that makes sense for you; in our example, once a visitor verifies their age, they won’t see the popup for a day.

Your Shopify age verification is ready

If you’ve followed all the steps, you should have a full-featured age verification popup. Go ahead and activate it in your store. If you decide to revise the copy or targeting settings at some point, you can apply changes to the existing popup – there’s no need to create a new one.

Got any questions? Ask away at help@getsecontrol.com or shoot us a message on Twitter via @getsitecontrol.