There’s an evolution in the receipts market in retail, with several brands making the switch from post-transaction paper to digital records.
It is estimated the digital receipts market will be worth $293bn by 2030 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.5% between now and then, according to market research business IndustryARC. The likes of vintage clothing retailer Beyond Retro, courier service provider Evri and fashion brand Longchamp are among the recent converts.
Increasing adoption of retail shopping apps and websites, growing use of food purchase apps, and continued demand for e-commerce are cited as factors in the market growth, but those making the switch are reporting paper waste reduction and customer experience (CX) benefits too. For the most forward-thinking, it’s a new data play that stands to help them better engage with consumers and personalise interactions.
Two years ago, France took an extreme approach and introduced its Anti-Waste and Circular Economy law featuring a ban on merchants automatically printing paper receipts. The aim was to reduce unnecessary waste and to promote a more circular economy acknowledging the eco impact of receipt printing and disposal.
Against such a backdrop, Computer Weekly gathers the thoughts of those operating in or close to this burgeoning sector. It’s an area of interest for multiple retail departments, including the tech, marketing and digital teams.
Data gold
According to Tash Grossman, founder of e-receipt company Slip, there is not a retailer or brand in the world immune to the rising costs of doing business and the growing expense of acquiring new customers.
“People are talking about digital receipts more now because everyone is feeling the pressure to do more with less, and the cost of customer acquisition is really expensive,” she says. “If you can do more with existing customers, that’s the way to go.”
She notes the receipt is “the only inevitable thing in a transaction” – how a customer pays and whether they are a member of a loyalty scheme or not cannot be guaranteed, but a receipt is a given, so it leaves the door open for opportunity.
Capturing phone numbers of those who have opted in for digital receipts at the point of purchase provides retailers with a chance for ongoing communication with consumers. It bridges a historical gap of being able to stay in touch with people who transacted in store as well as online.
With that information and a good customer relationship management (CRM) and tech team in place, this can get retailers close to achieving the long sought-after single view of customer behaviour across channels. Assuming a customer always opts for digital receipts, a retailer could feasibly understand the full purchase history, what they prefer to buy in each channel and the frequency of visit among other statistics.
Grossman says digital receipts increase marketing opt-in which grows the contactable customer database and provides retailers with the chance to track events in a consumer journey to influence cross-selling, upselling and next best action. “If you can transform a transactional comms channel into a profit channel, then that is positive,” she adds.
Warren Hampton, a transformation consultant and former tech lead at Fred Perry, Links of London, and Joseph, has overseen the implementation of Yocuda’s digital receipts technology at each of those businesses – and has seen the gains first hand.
At Fred Perry, once an average of 80% in-store digital receipt distribution had been reached, there was an uplift in accessories sales off the back of marketing prompted by a previous purchase. At Joseph, digital receipts distributed in stores meant the fashion retailer was able to contact valuable “lost” customers and invite them into stores for special events and upsell when new ranges came to market.
Momentum behind digital receipts is accelerating as more retailers adopt them, he says, adding: “It’s a great tool for the customer and the retailer. You get a holistic view of the customer. Bringing online and store sales data together – there was always black spots, but this seals it up, and ultimately the customer gets a better experience.”
Friction free?
Early-day digital receipt distribution typically began – and in some cases still does – with store staff at the till asking for an email address at the point of purchase. In busy shops, this can slow down service and cause queues, as it is not always a smooth exchange.
This long-running concern of retailers and consumers came to light again in June, when parcel courier service Evri made the decision to roll out digital receipts for customers looking to send, collect and return parcels through its ParcelShop service. With many drop-off and pick-up points located in independent retail stores, those running these businesses have voiced concern about the impact it will have on operations.
Mo Razzaq, national president of the Federation of Independent Retailers, said it will slow down processes at the till point: “In a busy store, this could cause chaos, with queues building if you have to input a customer’s email address. We have to think about the negative impact of the service we provide to our other customers. And all this is on the back of recently reducing our bonus payments.”
Evri counters the argument, saying digital receipts provide speedy access to tracking and that it will “auto-fill” email addresses as much as possible so it doesn’t slow down interactions.
The news brings to light the importance of a friction-free environment for digital receipts to be adopted more widely and for it to form a successful part of a retailer’s tech stack.
Vintage clothing retailer Beyond Retro, which operates stores in the UK, Sweden and Finland, places dedicated signage around its shops and encourages people to scan and opt-in to digital receipts. QR codes can often be used by retailers for this process too.
Kate Peters, managing director at Beyond Retro, says the retailer found asking for emails “clunky” and that it was a method prone to error. The retailer’s staff don’t even ask for emails now.
“A phone number is incredibly quick – the team turn the screen around and the customer puts their number in and ‘bam!’, it’s in your WhatsApp,” she says. “There are so many things that need to happen in a purchase far beyond the transaction – you’re trying to tell them about events, lines coming in, or other projects, so the last thing you want is friction inputting an email. The phone number is quick.”
Beyond Retro is a Slip customer, and it plans to take the tech to the Nordics in the coming months.
According to Grossman, Slip’s tech sits between the till and the CRM, and the functionality can take as little as 10 minutes to install for some clients. She acknowledges it’s not always straightforward integrating with decades-old point of sale (POS) software, but Slip is supplier agnostic – and, in the case of Beyond Retro, it integrates with in-store POS Sitoo, Shopify online and the Klavio marketing suite.
“You want customer data, and you want to connect with your customers and do it in a meaningful way,” Peters explains of the decision to adopt digital receipts, adding that it’s important to have information about past shopping behaviour which can be used to prompt people to return. You want to drive footfall and traffic, and you want to see what they are purchasing.”
A gateway to more
With sports equipment retailer Decathlon being headquartered in France where legislation is in place, it has adopted digital receipts and is working with Yocuda.
While Decathlon talked up the environmental benefits of removing paper from the transaction, it has quickly expanded how it uses digital receipts – with promotions about sporting events, the addition of loyalty point information, and links to workout videos among the examples of what else is contained in these emails.
Yocuda also works with Longchamp, where the primary aim of ditching paper is to elevate the experience in stores and allow the brand to link in with shoppers after they have left a store. But Yocuda calculates the 590,000 digital receipts distributed by Longchamp in 2024 saved the equivalent of 1.4 tonnes of carbon emissions associated with paper receipts.
The fashion retailer reported a 73% email open rate and 5.5% click-through rate for its digital receipts last year, with the communication containing tailored recommendations and additional brand content.
Indeed, digital receipts are increasingly becoming a gateway to other CX touchpoints.
Grossman says: “Over the last decade, e-receipts have been a product of the till but we’re trying to sell into CRM and be a product of marketing.”
It’s not an add on, it’s an incremental revenue driver, she adds, saying that Slip is currently working on ways to select a digital receipt for gifting which will fill another data gap for retailers because it will make clear what products were gifted and for whom.
Meanwhile, Beyond Retro is close to rolling out a loyalty scheme born out of the introduction of digital receipts. It tried loyalty before but was unable to sufficiently connect in-store and e-commerce data, according to Peters – but now it believes it can.
“We’re trying to reward people beyond just collecting points and their purchases to start rewarding behaviours – and particularly for behaviours that talk to our brand values,” she explains, revealing that discounts will be given for recycling unwanted garments in store.
Reflecting on how digital receipts impact several departments, Grossman adds: “Retail form the day-to-day operators and it’s on them to make it a success, tech are the integrators, and CRM/marketing are the beneficiaries. We’re trying to understand that the tech teams are the busiest, so how do we make it as easy as possible to integrate.”
Underlining the opportunity, Hampton says: “A lot of people think implementing the tech is quite daunting, but it’s not. The retailer gives access to POS and, before you know it, you’ve got digital receipts.
“Having the digital receipt reporting suite and the CRM together means you can pick out customer trends and what they’re buying in detail, and then you can start targeting customers based on what they are buying – and such personalisation is where the customer journey becomes really slick.”
The next frontier, he adds, is for retailers to work out how artificial intelligence (AI) can be deployed in the process.
In a question to the tech teams overseeing a larger stream of data into their businesses thanks to tools such as digital receipts, he says: “What are we going to do with AI to reap better rewards? You need to start thinking about this because you don’t want to have to start playing catch up when others start moving.”