Thursday, June 10, 2010

Do you really need a receipt with every little purchase you make?

Software Advice, an online consumer reports for point of sale systems recently hosted a poll to end paper receipts. They want to see consumers and retailers adopt electronic alternatives to traditional print receipts.

Why? For starters, it takes a lot of trees to produce paper receipts. According to some estimates, the figure is over 9 million annually. Not to mention, the amount of CO2 emitted by producing only one ton of receipt paper is equivalent to the amount of exhaust a car emits while driving for an entire year!

Over 200 voters participated in their poll. 89% said they support getting rid of paper receipts, 7% voted no, 3% are undecided and the leftover 1% said they don't care.

So what's keeping retailers and consumers from adopting electronic receipts? The main problem is inertia (or lack thereof). There are millions of consumers and retailers, and getting everyone to change their ways isn’t easy.

The bottom line is that the right solution, which will guarantee customers satisfaction, can be a win-win-win solution:
Saving paper = Saving trees = Saving money.

To see a list of potential motivators and the poll results, head to: Please Kill the Paper Receipt.

You can also explore another idea that is implemented at Sainsbury's -
two-sided receipts.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris