E-Receipts are here!

And what a great way to collect email addresses and communicate with your customers. I've just shopped in Cotswold Outdoors, a first for me, and when I was asked if I wanted to sign up for their loyalty card, one of the benefits stated was that I would receive e-receipts. Now I've never seen it as a benefit before, but having access to an account that can provide proof of purchase for any items you buy from that store is a great selling point to a customer to take away the hassle of storing and accessing receipts.

From the point of view of the retailer, you immediately gather your customers email address, which I know some customers can be reluctant to give. It allows you to feed them more information than just the e-receipt, such as -

* Here's how much you've saved with us this month/year by using your loyalty card

* Thanks for shopping with us today, by way of thanks, here's a voucher for 10% off your next visit. To make it easier we've already pre-loaded this discount in to your card

* Thanks for stopping by today, we wanted to tell you that our sale starts next week with up to 50% off sale items

It's the last one that got me thinking. Boots used to have machines in store where customers put in their loyalty card and browsed for any relevant vouchers. What if you had something similar, where it triggered an email if you went into store but didn't buy. Something like-

We noticed you came into store tad but didn't buy anything. Just to remind you that if you can't find an item in store, you can order it online and have it delivered to store or your home the next day.

Have you downloaded our app? It makes shopping on the go easy, and the app stores all your e-receipts.

Did you buy something in store today? Forgot to produce your loyalty card? Don't worry, come back in within 7 days with your card and the receipt and we'll add the points in for you.

I think that little differences will make some retailers more successful than others. If you can use these little tools to drive customers to your door then you will win.



Not everything can be bought on the High Street