Receipts, an integral part of retail transactions, remain one of the last holdouts in the push toward a paperless society. Several companies are working toward an online receipts solution that will also provide information for retailer marketing.
Birame Sock, founder and CEO of Third Solutions, says her idea for a digital solution was “driven by a selfish idea — to get all my receipts online.” Banks have information on what is spent, she says, but not the particulars of expenditures. Sock decided to make this information available with MyReceipts, a division of her Miami Beach-based company.
With MyReceipts, retailers digitize transactions using an existing loyalty card or the customer’s phone number as an identifier. At checkout, the customer swipes her loyalty card or provides her phone number and the receipt is sent to the user’s MyReceipts page. Based on customer purchases, retailers can issue targeted coupons at checkout or via e-mail to the user’s MyReceipts page. Before a shopping trip, customers can visit their online page and view coupons to make a list.
Targeted messaging
While paperless receipts can be used in any type of retail setting, Sock says the grocery sector is an early adopter due to more frequent purchases by customers, longer receipts and standardized procedures already in place.
Whole Foods Market is testing the solution at two stores in the Washington, D.C., area. “The pilot has been extremely successful,” Sock says, noting that discussions are underway with the grocer to deploy MyReceipts company-wide. Several other supermarkets will be deploying the solution in the next few months, she adds.
Benefits for retailers begin with savings on paper, ink and manpower and include gaining “a better sense of which customers shop stores,” Sock says. Offers and messages based on shopper information from MyReceipts can be more targeted and, therefore, more successful, she says. Other uses include rapid delivery of product recall information and detailed coupon redemption reports to participating retailers.
Other features currently being developed include receipt organization, a calorie counter, warranty details, nutrition and product information. MyReceipts is also available on select mobile phones, allowing customers to pull up coupons while in-store.
Built to suit
MyReceipts also supports online transactions and loyalty accounts from retailers like Best Buy, Wegman’s, Walmart and Office Depot.
The platform was designed using retail standards (Third Solutions is a member of ARTS, the NRF division devoted to developing such standards).
Sock, a native of Senegal, moved to the United States in 1993 to attend the University of Miami. She has worked as vice president and senior project manager for tech companies and was a 2010 winner of a Cartier Women’s Initiative award.
“The main message here is that if retailers are concerned about paperless transactions and wondering if they should build a solution themselves, this is not necessary,” she says. “We have built the most efficient solution cost-wise. It is still early in the process [but] we are the leading solution today. We just ask retailers to work with us and we will build to suit their needs.”