The digital till receipt is a sustainable solution for retailers and customers, which is currently
receives little attention in Germany. This could be due to the fact that the classic
receipt does not have a high value in our everyday life. The digital receipt offers
the possibility to reduce paper consumption and thus valuable resources.
It also makes it easier to archive important documents.
This is implemented, for example, via an app that scans the receipt as a QR code and then
or in the form of a mini-computer with the trader the vouchers in digital
form directly to customers. Customers decide for themselves whether they want to use the
would like to receive or reject a digital receipt on their mobile phone.
The receipt obligation
Possibilities for saving resources and costs
The digital receipt offers the optimal solution to implement the receipt obligation in an environmentally friendly way. An increasing number of startups and companies are dealing with the issue in order to be able to transfer receipts from the retailer to the customer in a resource-saving and uncomplicated way. The digital receipt enables digital management of the sales slips and prevents them from fading, breaking or getting lost.
In addition to resource-saving and environmentally friendly options, digital sales slips offer a high savings potential by eliminating printing costs. This creates an advantage especially for larger retailers in contrast to the use of paper receipts. The white paper receipt is rightly associated with high and unnecessary paper consumption and is rejected by many customers. For this reason, the "newer" blue receipt is being used more and more. This does without the conventional use of the health-damaging developer substance bisphenol A and is printed on phenol-free thermal paper. It is questionable to what extent the use of a paper receipt made of recyclable paper, which is no longer harmful to health, can be described as "environmentally friendly". The blue receipt is more environmentally friendly than the white receipt, but the immensely high paper consumption for receipts, which are usually thrown away immediately, remains.
Digital receipts as a marketing opportunity
The receipt is usually the last thing the customer receives when buying products from a retailer. PoS checkout systems offer not only the possibility of cashing and documenting, but also, for example, merchandise management, customer management, the connection to the tax advisor, the reordering of products and the creation of customer profiles.
Digital receipts are being used as an app or mini-computer as the final interface to the customer to improve the customer experience with the company. Likewise, the use of this digital option supports the position as a digital pioneer. Customer apps in particular, which retailers such as Rewe, Edeka and Lidl are already using, offer an ideal opportunity to integrate digital till receipts. These offer from online retailing via Special offers to personalized vouchers an optimal environment to introduce and use digital sales slips and to obtain meaningful data about a customer on a customer account basis.
The pandemic in particular has brought about a change in local retail in Germany, and people increasingly want to complete their purchases without cash or contact. This is where retailers who switch to digital receipts want to and should start.
Cash register security regulation - the next step of the cash register receipt obligation
Another important point with regard to digital cash register receipts is future security. As an extension to the cash register receipt obligation, the cash register security ordinance stipulates that cash registers in retail must be equipped with a special security chip. This security chip is intended to ensure that cash registers are not tampered with and that each cash register receipt contains a secure chip. This procedure has already been successfully implemented in other European countries. Digital cash register receipts can be optimally integrated here, making full use of digital possibilities. By fully exploiting digital possibilities for retailers and customers, digital till receipts, especially in combination with PoS till systems, are a successful way to further expand the position as a digital pioneer as a retailer and to accompany the customer digitally on all paths of the purchasing decision.
What do you think about digital receipts?