Paper vs digital receipts: should you opt for the digital route?

“Thank you for shopping with us and here’s your receipt”. We’ve heard these words at least a million times in our lives, without pausing to think about the issuing of paper receipts.

However, with an ever-growing environmental consciousness, even the smallest thing such as a paper receipt comes under the spotlight. In today’s day and age, there’s a slow but steady shift towards digital receipts with trailblazers like Apple paving the way for the rest.

But what are the benefits of paper vs. digital receipts, and is there an outright winner? We believe there is and here’s why.

Paper receipts

Paper receipts have been with us for ages and we seldom give them any thought except when we go to the store to return an item we’ve purchased. It might even be a gift you bought for your loved ones that simply didn’t fit, wasn’t the right color or wasn’t the right product in the first place.

So, with that being said, the first benefit of paper receipts is that it is your gateway to easy returns. In addition, it also helps you double-check your items against the total amount you spent on a shopping bill. And finally, you have a physical record of your transactions.

Digital receipts

With all the benefits that come with paper receipts, there are some environmental downsides, too. For starters, The Huffington Post reported that in one year in the US alone, it takes the following natural resources to manufacture paper receipts: 10 million trees, 250 million gallons of oil and 1 billion gallons of water.

That being said, the environmental footprint of paper receipts is high and growing and this needs to change. For naysayers who are not convinced about the security of their digital receipts as these are sent via SMS, email or a chat app – experts suggest that you create a new email address and use it just for shopping purposes.

This way, your personal data will not be compromised and you can create a unified email account or folder just for your receipts. You can always print them later, but think twice before you do. The environment needs you to make sound decisions.

Final thoughts

Overall, with the onset of digital receipts, we’re likely to see a drastic reduction in paper ones in the near future. While they haven’t gained as much momentum as they could yet, there’s still a lot of room for growth. At myPOS, we are proud of our portable card reader, which issues digital receipts via email and SMS.

What’s more is the paperless myPOS Glass app, which turns a merchant’s Android phone into a payment terminal. We also offer a QR code payment functionality with our Payment Request service, which is also paperless. At myPOS, we’re happy to contribute to the preservation of the environment through our innovative paperless solutions.