The COVID-19 impact is still on the rise. You may have heard in the news too that how figures are increasing daily, and why it is necessary to maintain a social distancing. People have to avoid touching unknown things when they go outside. It could be the first reason to avoid paper receipts. Apart from that, according to a report, retail generate around 4,250,000 Kg’s of receipts to landfill each year. If we talk about the whole business community, the numbers will be hundreds or thousands of times more. So, you can imagine how many trees have to go extinct to fuel our paper receipt addition.
SOME IMPORTANT STATS ABOUT PAPER RECEIPTS
- Approximately 90% of paper receipts go to waste every year. Many people through it in the dustbin after some time and, some cannot even remember where they kept them. Sometimes you need a receipt as a purchase proof to claim warranty or returns, for business expense reporting or personal expense tracking, etc… And if you do not have your receipts, it can cause a financial loss for you.
- It is causing severe environmental damage to our ecosystem. In the US alone, around 9 billion gallons of water, 3 million trees, and 250 million gallons of oil get wasted on paper receipts. And in the end, it still goes into the trash.
- The production of receipts generates 302 million pounds of solid waste and 4 billion pounds of CO2, which is equivalent to 450,000 cars running on the road.
- Thermal paper receipts are generally coated with BPS or BPA (highly toxic materials). And if you or your consumers touch those receipts regularly, it can cause serious health problems. Also, these receipts are impossible to recycle currently.
- Fifty-five thousand receipts, including bills, are sufficient to destroy one average tree. So, for example, on an average, if one restaurant prints 9500 receipts per year, then it will take only six restaurants to annihilate a tree from the plant. In the United Kingdom alone, there are around 86, 627 restaurants, which means only the United Kingdom restaurant industry by itself levels 14,437 trees per year. And if we include the whole world, along with all the business sectors using paper receipts, these numbers will be overwhelming.
So now, the question is, ‘What are the alternatives available in the market?’ The answer is simple, ‘Replacing old or traditional methods of generating receipts with Digital Receipts.’
DIGITAL RECEIPTS & WHY TO CHOOSE THEM
E-receipts or digital receipts were originally introduced by Apple in its Apple Store back in 2005. Now, after a decade-and-half later, as people are preferring pay on the go method with the phone, more and more companies have started to prefer e-receipts. Also, the global pandemic played a big part in this time.
HOW DOES A DIGITAL RECEIPT WORK?
At a basic level, the digital receipt work in the following way at the point of purchase:
- At the time of checkout, cashier inquires whether the customer needs a print receipt, a digital receipt, or both.
- If the customer selects a digital receipt, the cashier asks for the shopper mobile no. or email address and enters it into the system.
- The system sends an email or message to the customer email inbox or mobile number.
- The transaction data, including the consumer email address, gets captured in the digital receipt system. You can use that data for your marketing programs.
BENEFITS OF DIGITAL RECEIPTS
- Digital receipts save paper, are easy to find and easy to store. Your consumers do not have to fatten their records by keeping paper receipts. Also, e-receipts are mobile and printer-friendly.
- Thermal paper receipts cost billions of dollars per year for the retail industry itself. If we include the manufacturing and distribution industry also, the cost will go much higher. Digital receipts do not involve any printing and are less expensive, reducing overhead operating expenses.
- As a retailer, you can also include marketing messages and send them to your customers on digital receipts. The technology provides a reliable source to build email lists and collect customer data during the transaction process.
- You can equip your staff with an e-receipt integrated mobile payment terminal. It will decrease the customer waiting time during checkout.
- Use the data collected via digital receipts to identify the best customers and the merchandise they likely buy from you. In doing so, you can create effective marketing campaigns to retain customers.
- You can program digital receipts to deliver unique content that is relevant for the individual customers.
- Digital receipts allow you to boost online traffic to your store. You can use mobile apps integration to send digital bills whenever a consumer makes their purchase from your online store. They can help you to drive more traffic by embedding loyalty programs in the receipts. You can also add special announcements like discount offers, upcoming events.
- Transaction details captured by the digital receipt system would give much clarity about your customers and their individual needs with high accuracy, leading to more referrals, higher customer satisfaction, and greater loyalty.
WHY PEOPLE AVOID USING DIGITAL RECEIPTS TECHNOLOGY?
The number of retailers using digital receipts has increased over the years, but the adoption rate is still slow. Following are the reasons for it:
- People feel discomfort in sharing their mobile numbers or email details with the unknown person standing behind the counter.
- There’s a threat of cyber security breaches. Although it’s very rare, there’s still a chance of your consumer’s information falling into wrong hands.
- Some stores use phone-based services and apps to allow buyers to take a picture or scan paper receipts. This method is inefficient that could cause many problems.
- People believe that there’s a lack of standardization of the available solutions in such technology.
There are plenty of advantages to using the e-receipts method. But most of the retail chains are still stuck on the outdated POS software that does not even adopt the technological changes and features needed for current pandemic. Digital receipts can bring plenty of business benefits, no matter the size of your business or business type. As you read, digital receipts are transforming the retail industry at a steady pace. So if you also want to change your working with innovative technology, LOGIC ERP is a solution to solve your problem regarding user-friendly and easily accessible digital receipts systems without compromising environmental sustainability and people’s privacy.
