If you want to keep up with the latest digital optimizations and marketing trends, you need to digitize your business operations. Among these activities, the digitization of sales receipts not only enhances customer experience but also streamlines internal processes for your business.
Paper receipts still work fine, and many customers prefer them, but digital receipts bring many more benefits that will help with your business scaling. Besides, you can offer customers to get either paper receipts, digital receipts, or even both. There is nothing to lose, and the benefits of implementing digital receipts are far more than the effort to implement them.
In this post, I’ll list the benefits of implementing digital receipts and how to properly make it a part of your business.
What are Digital Receipts
Digital receipts, also known as e-receipts, are virtual counterparts to traditional paper receipts that are sent to the customer via email, SMS, or other digital communication methods. It contains the same information as a paper receipt, but the message itself can be optimized to include more promotional material.
You’ll need a point-of-sale (POS) system that supports digital receipts, such as Square, Clover, or Lightspeed. You’ll need to ask the customer to provide their contact information like email or phone number, and the POS system will send and manage the digital receipt.
Being in digital form, it also has many more benefits for both customers and businesses, like being able to easily sort and access them in one place or import them in any accounting software. Below I am listing all the compelling benefits that you’ll achieve when you implement digital receipts.
Benefits of Digital Receipts
For both the customer and the business, digital receipts open up better opportunities. Customers get faster service and manage the receipts without clutter. And businesses get to incorporate receipts in all their digital strategies. Let’s check out all the benefits:
Cost Saving
Paper receipts need physical paper and ink to process, which is an expense for every receipt generated. If you use a POS system with built-in digital receipt support, there is a good chance it will be part of your overall package. In most cases, no extra cost will be incurred for using digital receipts.
Better Analytics and Integration
Most older paper receipt-based POS systems have built-in tracking and analytics features, but they lack advanced analytics to create marketing strategies and limited integration support with other tools. An advanced POS system with digital receipt support will have a much better analytics dashboard with integration with other apps, such as CRM systems.
For example, Lightspeed integrates dozens of apps, and Square has a dedicated app market with hundreds of apps.
Convenience for Customers
It makes the overall checkout process faster as the customer just needs to provide the contact info and go on their way. The process is even faster for future visits as the customer is registered. Not to mention, customers won’t have to save paper receipts for any returns/exchanges.
It also lets customers access and manage receipts in one place and easily share them as well. They can also open the receipt from anywhere and on any device as long as they have an internet connection.
Creates Marketing Opportunities
The digital receipt is sent as a message that usually has more space to add promotional material or important links. You can upsell or cross-sell by recommending similar products or products frequently bought together in your digital receipt. You can also add links to upcoming sales/events or a loyalty program.
Grow Marketing List
Since you need customer contact information to send the digital receipt, it automatically creates an opportunity to capture email or phone numbers for future marketing opportunities. You can ask for customer consent for future promotion messages on the spot or in the receipt delivery message.
Furthermore, since you already know what exactly the customer bought, it also helps personalize future marketing campaigns to individual customers.
No-Contact Handling
It encourages contactless handling of transactions, and there is an increased demand for hygienic experiences due to health concerns. The touchless experience stays consistent even after the sale, as customers can handle any returns or exchanges online.
Furthermore, printed paper also has traces of BPA, a chemical known for causing health issues when it comes in contact. Although at such a low level, it may not lead to a health problem, you are still exposed.
Enhanced Security
For customers, they have receipts saved digitally, so they don’t have to worry about protecting the paper receipts. Paper receipts are also prone to damage. Advanced POS systems give businesses many tools to both secure receipts and customer data collected.
The data is usually saved in encrypted vaults, and more security can be introduced using other app integrations, such as cloud backup. Better access control features are also very useful for security as only the employees with the right privileges can access the required data.
Environment Friendly
Digitizing any paper documents is good for the environment due to the impact of paper production and disposal processes. The use of paper receipts negatively impacts the environment in many ways, such as deforestation, energy consumption, waste material, introduction of chemicals, and carbon emission. From production to end life, paper receipts contribute to these environmental hazards.
Reducing or removing the use of paper receipts directly helps in decreasing the impact of these environmental hazards and also creates a good image in front of the customers.
Legibility and Readability
Paper receipts usually need to be smaller in size to save paper and ink. The POS system templates are designed to use tiny fonts and keep information to the point as much as possible.
Digital receipts aren’t bound by this restriction and can take full advantage of the message body space. You can show the receipt with big fonts and lots of space in between to make it easy to read. You can even add product images or brand logos without any worry. Not to mention, digital devices are easily able to zoom in to read any smaller print easily.
Enhanced Brand Image
It helps enhance your brand’s image by fulfilling modern customer expectations. Digital receipts present your business as a tech-savvy, forward-thinking brand that customers who want efficiency and integration of technology into everyday transactions can trust.
It also showcases your commitment to environmental responsibility due to the decrease in paper use. Customers who prefer businesses with green ethos may prefer your product over others. You can mention or use a green tag to further convey your commitment to eco-friendly practices.
If you offer both paper and digital receipts, it demonstrates a customer-centric approach where your business caters to a diverse customer base.
Digital Receipt Implementation Best Practices
I am sure the above benefits have made you consider implementing digital receipts. However, ensuring successful implementation requires careful consideration of various intricacies. Make sure to handle these aspects properly for optimal results.
Below I am listing best practices that you should follow during and after implementing digital receipts.
#1. Proper Opt-in and Opt-out System
You need to respect customer privacy and preferences. Make sure you explicitly take customer permission for any future communication. It’s also subject to many local and international consumer laws. You can convince the customer verbally and get their consent when you send the digital receipt.
Similarly, provide them with an easy opt-out function depending on the mode of communication you are using. Like an unsubscribe button for emails or an unsubscribe keyword for text messages.
#2. Data Security Measures
Handling customer’s personal information should never be taken lightly. It’s required to use robust security measures to maintain customer trust and to comply with different regulations like GDPA or CCPA.
You need to protect the data from both data breaches and unauthorized access within the business. You should apply strong encryption protocols for both data in transit and at rest. Additionally, manage data access control to prevent abuse and perform regular security audits.
For an all-in-one solution, you can implement a data security solution that will handle everything from data creation to destruction.
#3. Take Full Advantage of Additional Space
Like I said before, a message has much more space to add more things compared to paper. You can utilize the extra space to properly break down transactions, provide images, add links to important pages like return policy, apply brand elements, add social media buttons, and add personalized elements (like customer name).
#4. Add Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)
When you add links, take advantage of better message-designing elements and add clear CTA buttons in the message. For example, if you want to ask for customer feedback or sign up for a loyalty program, then add a big button that makes it easier for customers to click and access the page.
#5. Provide Multiple Delivery Options
If possible, implement multiple digital receipt delivery options so customers can choose what they prefer, like offering both email and SMS delivery. Having a dedicated business app/website would be even better where people could sign in to manage their orders and receipts. An app can also utilize push notifications for marketing purposes.
#6. Educate Customers and Employees
Implementing digital receipts is a beneficial change, but not everyone will understand or accept it immediately. Make sure you properly brief the customers about the benefits of digital receipts and how to access them.
The same goes for employees, educate the employees about the benefits and use of digital receipts and how the customer data will be handled. Asking for contact information is a sensitive question, and employees should be educated to handle any customer query related to it.
#7. Comply With Legal Standards
When customer data goes into your hands, it’s subject to many different regulations. Make sure you comply with all local laws and online data protection regulations (GDPR, CCPA, etc.). Failing to comply can lead to penalties.
#8. Have a Backup and Recovery Plan
A backup and recovery plan is necessary for unforeseen events, system failures, and data loss. Make sure you have a reliable business backup solution in place that allows easy recovery in case of data loss.
Customer data is crucial for business success and continuity after a security breach or data loss event. I recommend Acronis for this purpose; it’s an easy-to-use all-in-one solution for both backup and recovery.
Final Thoughts💻🧾
Digitizing receipts will play an important role in your business scaling and ensure you keep up with the latest digital advancements. Implementing it shouldn’t be too difficult or costly either. The only issue I see is your POS system not supporting digital receipts, which will force you to replace it with a more advanced POS system. However, that, too, will be beneficial for overall business scaling.
