Looking for non-invasive way to verify parenthood

Want to give discount to parents, how do I verify

[SincerelySandy]

One of my sites sells a product that is a great way for parents to bond with their kids. It is a particularly great product for fathers to create lasting memories with their sons, as my father did with me. It's a "best of the best" type product and is a bit expensive for many people to afford. I would like to offer a percentage type discount to parents for this product.
Any suggestions on non-invasive ways that I can verify that a customer is in fact "a parent"?

[palain]

What age group?
0 - 1 ask about puke and poop and pacifyers
1 - 2 ask about theething and first trip to the doctor
2 - 5 ask about Dora the explorer or Her friend boots
6 - 12 ask about Lego

[Habtom]

One of my sites sells a product that is a great way for parents to bond with their kids.

Any suggestions on non-invasive ways that I can verify that a customer is in fact "a parent"?

Would they want it if they are not parents?

Hab

[SincerelySandy]

Would they want it if they are not parents?

Definately.

[Essex_boy]

Ask them to fax a birth certificate.

[p5gal5]

Not really a verification method per se, but possibly make a promotional code available to members of particular parenting forum(s)? Or make a special Adwords campaign and landing page with a discounted price for all people that query on "parent bonding widget" or another keyword phrase that would properly target your audience.

We've tried doing discounts for different groups, but it's just too much of a hassle. Once people see you're offering a discount to one "special group", everyone thinks they deserve a discount for one reason or another.

* Military - "Don't you want to support the troups?"
* Teachers - "Don't you have any kind of special teacher discounts?"
* Large corporations - "Don't you have any kind of quantity discounts?"
* Small companies - "We're just starting off...."
* Cheapskates - "Don't you have any current promotions?"
....and the list goes on.

In the end, we ended up implementing quantity discounts at several different levels - eg 10, 25, 100, etc - the bigger the quantity, the bigger the discount.

Ever since quantity discounts were implemented, these requests have all but vanished - the only time we get contacted regarding "special pricing" is if individuals want to make sure they are set up as tax-exempt.

[Marcia]

I can't think of any way that isn't invasive of privacy, I wouldn't tell or send anything of a personal nature. Maybe the age of the child, but nothing more.

How about instead of a discount on this purchase, include for parents who purchase this now a discount certificate to use on their next purchase.

[HRoth]

I have a cheap, flat-rate shipping that is available on a pulldown menu on the cart for people buying a certain class of widgets. This rate is WAY cheaper than the regular rate, but it is for certain items only. The vast majority of my customers do not try to get the cheap shipping rate for the other widgets, even though all they have to do is click on it. IOW, most people are actually pretty honest (when they're not tempted too severely). So maybe you could do something similar.

However, what I would do if I were you would be to make one widget discounted for parents and another widget discounted for non-parents. That way people don't feel slighted and you get more happy customers. I know I get annoyed when I see certain groups getting discounts and I don't get one.

[vincevincevince]

I think when it comes down to it you will need to trust the honesty of the parents. Even with verification requested, it is childsplay to send you a copy of documents from a friend and have the item sent there instead.

If you are worried, then request the name of the eligible child and put a statement to the effect that "we reserve the right to verify this claim". That would probably tip the balance for most people. If you really are suspicious about an order, then just phone them up and check - if you ask for $childname's mother I suspect you will trip most people up!

[Sunshyn]

The first thing that popped into my mind when I read the title was - pregnancy test.

Seriously though, I agree with HRoth. It's probably not a good policy if it's setup in a way that might cause everyone else to feel slighted.

[RailMan]

realistically, you can't verify anyone's age
but if you want to target parents, sell via schools, nurseries, play groups etc
you'll probably make sales to non-parents but a sale is a sale is a sale?

[Ledfish]

I would agree with Rainman. It widely know that there is no way on the internet to actually verify age. There must be physical interaction in order to effectively do age verification. If there was a real system, the adult internet sites would be using it for sure.

So, any way you can think of to verify someone is a parent can be gotten around unless you have physical contact. Sure you could require a child's birth certificate, but then you also need a copy of the so called parent's picture id and then you need to see them to verify that it is indeed their ID.

[sniffer]

maybe send it a couple of photos of their kids

[RailMan]

maybe send it a couple of photos of their kids

not good idea IMO ..... think about it ..... someone asking for photos of kids ...... only gonna take one average mum to call the police .......