Digital receipts came from the world of online shopping, where corporations like Amazon and Apple were the first to use them. But they are also often used in stores instead of paper records. More and more companies now offer digital receipts rather than paper receipts, and some have even switched to digital receipts only.
The benefits of using digital receipts instead
People have found that a digital receipt is a good option. Green America did a survey and found that 89% of US shoppers want them to be a choice at checkout.
The benefits of digital experiences for customers
- They’re far simpler to put away and find when you need them.
- Someone can be sent straight to financial software, which speeds up returns for taxes.
- They’re safer than paper records because they have a password and cannot be lost or stolen.
- Digital receipts are easier to give up because they are sent to you right away by email.
- Personalized deals, loyalty points, media, and other things can make them better.
- You may group them and look for them by category.
When this involves shopping, one of the most important things that customers care about is how easy it is. Some stores are known for giving out too many written receipts. Think about the US drugstore chain CVS. Unless you buy a boatload of things, their receipts last a lot longer than those from other shops. After being criticized for wasting paper, CVS decided in 2013 to cut the typical length of its receipts by 25%. Since 2016, members of CVS’s ExtraCare reward plan can choose to get a digital receipt instead of a paper one.
Handling digital receipts
Digital receipts, also called e-receipts or electronic receipts, have all the information you’d find on a regular receipt, just in a digital version. A digital receipt is made by the vendor when a customer makes a purchase. This is delivered to the customer by email, and a copy is kept on the servers of the company as part of the customer’s digital record for transactions.
The customer may look at the ticket on their mobile device, and the business can look at it on a computer if they need to. In this way, the ticket is always there, but no one looks at it until they need to. The rest of the time, it’s saved as a bunch of 1s and 0s on the public internet or on your mobile device. Digital records are also the norm in B2B transactions because they are so easy to use. When a business deal is finished, a digital receipt is sent to the opposing party to show that they have been paid. These are called confirmation receipts, which are different from invoices and the normal receipts that consumers get after paying for goods in a store.
