A receipt is a confirmation for the reception of a service. The retailer confirms to the customer that he has met his obligations. In the following years, mobile payments will most likely increase thanks to NFC chips in the different devices. The wallet would become redundant and e-receipts will become the norm.
Some providers already employ e-receipts, but this requires the email address of the customer. Obviously, this is difficult to implement in practice in long queues at the check out, for example. Mobile payments facilitate this process. But even with traditional payment methods, e-receipts might be worth it. We would like to illustrate you the risks and potentials of e-receipts in the following.
Guarantee Fraud Protection
Printed receipts offer a high degree of security. Barcodes, IDs and images on the back protect from reproductions and changes and thus protect efficiently from fraud. With digital receipts, unfortunately, this is not the case. With a comparatively low effort, you can add further products to the receipt or change prices. In order to avoid this, it is recommended to send a link with the receipt which is connected to the transaction in the inventory control system. Additional unique identification features can be added as further security steps.
Integrate Clickable CTA Buttons
In addition to the usual information about a transaction, printed receipts already come with a number of further marketing messages. Notifications of surveys, coupons, facebook or twitter pages and service hotlines are common. However, these are often not used by the customer as he would need to make the extra effort to jump from print to digital. With e-receipts, this effort would be considerably less. The information could be linked enabling the customer to directly access the offer through a click.
Obtain Opt-ins
E-receipts are also part of transaction emails. The sending of transaction emails generally does not require customer consent. However, if the e-receipt contains promotional information, you must obtain an explicit opt-in from the customer. You can find more detailed information in our checklist 23 Questions on Big Data and Law
Timing
Many customers feel uncomfortable if they leave a shop after a purchase and do not have a receipt. The e-receipt should therefore be delivered as soon as possible. If this is not possible due to the stock inventory system it is recommended to first notify the customer.
Furthermore, we should mention that a change to digital receipts could save costs. Expenses for paper and print as well as printer maintenance become redundant and save the environment. Those who are familiar with a receipt collection in their wallet, would agree that digital receipts can more easily be found and assigned via a search function in the inbox. Managing a housekeeping book by means of a corresponding app would also be easier due to an import/export function.
In so far as companies are able to take the technical as well as legal hurdle with the introduction of e-receipts, e-receipts could develop into another promising touchpoint in email marketing.