Paperless Receipts

Paperless Receipts

Receipts“Do you need a paper receipt, or is e-mail fine?”

Every time I go to the Apple Store to buy something (an event my wife would say is much too common), I am given the option to have my receipt e-mailed to me. In almost every case, I choose the e-mail option.

Given the fact that I run this website, I am probably a bit of an edge case. I started wondering what kind of adoption paperless receipts are having.

The Boston Herald had an article on the topic:

“It’s the next big thing in retail,” said Richard Mader, executive director of the Association for Retail Technology Standards, a division of the National Retail Federation. “In five years, up to 60 percent of retailers will go paperless.” Colin Johnson, a Nordstrom spokesman, said all of its stores started offering the paperless option this month.

Of course, retailers aren’t doing it just to make things convenient for us. According to this New York Times article, some retailers (I’m looking at you, Gap) are using those e-mail addresses for marketing purposes. The Times had an interesting quote from Patagonia:

That marketing potential is a drawback to some customers, said Robert Cohen, vice president of retail at Patagonia, which began offering e-receipts nine months ago. “People are very protective of their e-mail in-box,” he said, so only about one-third of Patagonia’s customers choose an electronic receipt.

To be honest, I am surprised it is as high as one-third.

How about you? Do you take the paperless receipt option, or do you like the perceived safety of walking out of the store with a piece of paper? I’m curious what others do.

(Photo by ben_onthemove)

About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 7 comments

DocumentSnap Time Machine | Tips To Learn How To Go Paperless | DocumentSnap Paperless Blog - August 12, 2012 Reply

[…] Paperless Receipts When given a choice, do you take the paper receipt or e-mail? […]

sonofsoren - August 17, 2011 Reply

I too always ask for an e-mailed receipt from Apple and other reputable stores. Rather than printing or saving them to an e-mail folder when I get home, I simply FWD them to my Evernote "Receipts" Notebook using my personal Evernote e-mail address. I do the same thing for all the purchases I make from on-line stores as well.

    Brooks Duncan - August 17, 2011 Reply

    Good idea forwarding to Evernote. Thanks sonofsoren.

    Ken Bagby - March 1, 2015 Reply

    I couldn’t agree with you more. I agree fully and do the exact same thing.

Jeri Dansky - August 12, 2011 Reply

I always take emailed receipts from Apple, and would like to have that option with other stores I support and trust.

    Brooks Duncan - August 12, 2011 Reply

    Good point about trust Jeri. If it is some random store I don't already have a relationship with, I would likely think twice about handing over my e-mail address (or use my Hotmail spam address).

Brooks Duncan - August 11, 2011 Reply

Thanks. I totally agree about the logging into a website and downloading a PDF. I can't imagine anyone will do that, which means you're then stuck with no receipt.

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