Going Paperless? Paper vs. Digital Receipts
Paper receipts are a familiar sight for shoppers making purchases at the checkout line, but many retailers are signing up to use digital receipts—where customers can choose to have their receipt sent to an email address or a mobile phone app. If a California bill requiring businesses to send electronic receipts as a default passes, that could accelerate a shift from paper receipts to electronic receipts in the near future.
Even before the California bill was proposed in January, paper receipts have been targeted for both environmental and health reasons. Initiatives to curb their use may not be surprising given the number of laws across the country targeting other single-use items such as shopping bags, straws, and food containers.
In the United States alone, over 250 million gallons of oil, 10 million trees and 1 billion gallons of water are consumed each year in the production of receipts, HuffPost reported. Moreover, that production generates 1.5 billion pounds of waste and 4 billion pounds of CO2, Hacker Noon reported.
In the United Kingdom, more than 11 billion receipts are printed annually, each costing just under a cent to print (US$0.015—US$0.05 per receipt). This means a merchant printing 1,000 receipts a day spends between $5,475 to $18,250 per year on thermal paper, Hacker Noon reported.
Thermal receipts can also have serious health implications, according to a study from the Ecology Center. The study found that an estimated 93% of thermal paper receipts are coated with nonrecyclable Bisphenol A (BPA) or Bisphenol S (BPS), which are connected to negative effects on hormones, metabolism, and other bodily systems. According to another study from the New York State Dept. of Health, concentrations of BPA were found in flyers, magazines, tickets, airplane boarding passes, and business cards, among other paper products.
Can digital receipts solve these problems? In 2012, 83% of retailers reported offering emailed receipts simply because they have proven to be effective marketing tools, CNBC reported, citing a report from Epsilon International. Although some retailers and point-of-sale (POS) providers send digital receipts in the form of emails and text messages to their customers, many people are concerned about the possibility that their private information could end up in the wrong hands.
Adoption rates are key to the effectiveness of any digital receipt program, and without proper safeguards to appease consumer privacy concerns, paper could continue to be used for some time to come.
Factors Preventing the Adoption of Digital Receipts
Take the story of Teresa Smith, for example. According to The Wall Street Journal, Smith hoped she could keep news about her impending divorce a secret, until Square Inc., a mobile payment company based in San Francisco, divulged it to one of her friends. When Smith’s divorce attorney used a Square device, the payments company automatically generated the receipt that ended up in her friend’s inbox.
Square, like many other mobile payment startups, collects and stockpiles shoppers’ financial and contact information from millions of small businesses, and then puts together profiles of consumer behavior to run marketing and loyalty programs for its small-business customers.
There are broader concerns about tech companies monetizing the financial data of consumers, not to mention the extent to which those companies reveal or gain consent from their users about those efforts.
There’s also a safety element involved. Following the 2014 Target breach, in which 70 million customers’ credit and debit card information was stolen, concerns about phishing attacks made consumers stop and think before volunteering their personal information.
Finally, the majority of leading retail chains still rely on outdated POS software from the 1990s that have no application programming interface (APIs) or integration capabilities. Adopting a digital receipt system calls for expensive and time-consuming upgrades and integration to existing POS systems, and many retailers have reservations about sweeping technological change.
Thermal Paper Market Value and Forecast
The global thermal printing market is projected to expand at a promising CAGR of 4.4% between 2013 and 2025, according to a report by Future Market Insights. North America dominated the market with over 24% market share in 2014. Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) is expected to emerge as the fastest growing region in the thermal printing market over the forecast period.
Looking Ahead
In May, the California bill that would force businesses to send electronic receipts by January 1, 2022, passed the Natural Resources Committee, and will go to the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee next, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Inspired by Green America’s “Skip the Slip” campaign, the bill would not exempt small businesses, and would warn noncompliant businesses twice before fining them $25 for each subsequent violation, up to $300 per year, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Meanwhile, Illinois lawmakers have passed a house bill banning BPA in paper, including thermal paper used for receipts, WGNTV reported. The bill is being sent to the governor’s office, and if passed into law, will take effect Jan. 1, 2020, ChemicalWatch reported.
So, while the global thermal paper market is expected to grow through 2025, legislative initiatives and changing consumer opinion may indeed drive us toward a paperless future sooner than we anticipated.
