Say Hello to the 21st-Century Receipt

New technology is finally bringing the humble—but necessary—consumer transaction record into the digital economy.

Since point-of-sale technology was first introduced, it has seen steady improvements in capability and sophistication. The last five years in particular have brought many breakthroughs in convenience, mobility, loyalty, and security, redefining the shopping experience and modifying merchant and consumer behavior.

This progress has been the direct result of committed research and development. And the fruits of those invested hours and dollars can be seen in the flexible and robust choices we enjoy today at the point of sale—whether in-store at a register, online, or via a mobile device.

Yet, for lack of the same level of engineering, one component of POS technology has continued to lag: the receipt. For all the digital options we now have in other areas of commerce, such as promoting and conducting transactions, mobile marketing, and the mobile wallet, the proof of the actual transaction itself remains an outdated element in the merchant/consumer ecosystem.

The receipt is important as a transaction record and summary of items purchased, detailing when, where, how, and with what form of currency. Yet, in the family of POS products and services, the receipt has remained the neglected stepchild. Not only that, but the ways in which it continues to be offered, still mostly on paper and, in some instances, in email form, are no longer working for either merchant or consumer.

However, new technology is emerging that is changing all that.

Paper Chase

Accepted as merely a final requisite link in the transactional chain, the receipt is now finding its time in the sun as the invaluable information tool that it is, not only for providing vital sales data, transaction metrics, and evidence of a given purchase to both consumer and merchant, but also for enabling critical analytics into the nature of consumers and their elusive buying habits.

But if digital receipts have been available for some time now, and customers have needed only to request one from a retailer that will promptly email it, what’s actually new in the process? The problem is, most customers remain reluctant to divulge personal information, such as email addresses, to the sometimes dozens of retailers with which they transact. Rightfully, they fear a flood of inbox spam or, worse still, an open door to cyber mischief.

However, something has to give. Maintaining the model of the printed receipt is not a viable solution. Neither the merchant nor the consumer has any interest in continuing to manage paper in an increasingly paperless world.

Despite the fact that receipt information is already inherently digital at the point of sale, the rich data contained by the receipt continue to be ignored because they are simply converted by most POS systems back into traditional print. This last step back into paper is superfluous—and the opportunity to mine the receipt data remains untapped.

On the retailer side, receipts are still very much a paper affair. While merchants have always had to physically manage receipts as a necessary part of doing business, it remains a laborious, annoying, and costly process. Retailers don’t do a very good job with this function, which becomes painfully clear to consumers when a purchase is called into question. That’s when the paper chase ensues.

The promise of new technology, however, is that it would eliminate the problems that paper receipts are commonly associated with, such as creating difficult-to-access silos of information, slowing down the checkout process, and posing annoying physical-handling issues for both merchant and consumer.

Using proprietary methods that can be integrated directly at any POS, line-item receipt details of any transaction, down to the stock-keeping-unit (SKU) level, can now be captured at the moment of purchase, instantaneously recreating a streamlined and elegant digital receipt that can be accessed by consumer or merchant in any form they prefer.

This virtual receipt is then stored in a secure cloud-based account that an authorized user, merchant or consumer, can access at any time and from any device.

Harvested And Crunched

For consumers, this new service would involve a one-time, permission-based subscription attached to any payment card. They would no longer be required to divulge their personal data directly to any establishment; and yet, because they are opting into the system, they are granting self-selected permission levels to make key analytics transparent and available to the merchant, and in return receive customized offers through a controlled platform based on actual purchases, not assumed generic product likes.

At the same time, this approach gives consumers the confidence and peace of mind of knowing that their virtual receipts are always accessible any time they need them. No more lost, forgotten, or discarded receipts.

Consumers can simply log in to the service from any device to retrieve, sort, and organize their receipts without the hassles of physically handling them. No scanning, emailing, photo-taking, or printing. Or, they can opt for a no-receipt option. The choice is theirs.

For merchants, priceless consumer data are granted by a registration-based service. This information can then be harvested and crunched to reveal crucial information for understanding customer behavior, both within and beyond their establishments.

Applications include identifying market trends, developing finer-targeted marketing campaigns, and personalizing offers based on actual demographics and purchase history.

This all translates into evidence-based insights that drive sales and directly contribute to boosting top-line revenue. As an added bonus, but certainly no less an advantage, these solutions greatly assist merchants, merchant-service providers, and card-issuing financial institutions in reducing chargebacks as well as mitigating payment and return fraud. Furthermore, it provides a customer-centric approach to continuing engagement after the purchase is completed, with consumer consent.

A New Age

When receipt-based information can be tracked, aggregated, correlated, segmented, and dissected as it now can—and in so many useful and flexible ways—it not only sheds light on specific types of micro-consumer behavior, but also reveals enlightening insights into macro-movements and trends in the market. This puts the power of “big data” into the hands of merchants both large and small.

Why today? Because technology has finally caught up with what consumers and merchants have wanted all along: a smarter way to manage receipts. We’ve reached the dawn of a new age for the receipt, one where it has come to be recognized as the critical digital resource that it is for compiling insightful information—all safely and securely stored and accessed directly by merchants and consumers from the cloud.

It is time for the receipt to demonstrate it’s no longer a painful annoyance in the world of commerce. With the help of new technology, it can instead prove its inherent value as a key part of the new digital economy.

Morgan Giddings is chief executive and founder at Piper, Washington.