By Gaurav Mittal, Executive Vice President, Ethoca

Digitalisation has accelerated rapidly over the last two years, and with it, eCommerce and digital experiences became critical to almost all aspects of everyday lives from work to shopping and everything in between. With that, touchscreen kiosks and click-to-collect ordering began to blur the lines between in-store and digital commerce.

Next-gen technologies like digital receipts will similarly become a common tool that bridges the gap between digital and physical commerce. Some merchants have already invested in offering digital receipts, enabling them to provide an electronic delivery of a transaction record. There are many advantages of this, but digital receipts go far beyond this, paving the way to further customer engagement.

For those businesses looking to increase trust, transparency and customer engagement that have not yet taken advantage of digital receipt technology, it’s a missed opportunity.

Digital receipts are in demand

Paper receipts are prone to getting damaged or lost, which can make them difficult to manage. The solution, therefore, is to place receipts directly where customers most often review their purchase history, in their digital banking channels.

Two thirds (66%) of consumers report using digital banking three times a week or more[i], and 96% of consumers express a preference for having more detailed transaction information[ii]. This offers an ideal opportunity for a new generation of digital receipts that offers clear purchase details and more branding opportunities for merchants. They also can’t get lost or damaged as they arrive in banking apps automatically, providing an exceptional level of ease and convenience.

In fact, two thirds of merchants ranked customer convenience as the top business case driver for investment in digital receipts technology. This is increasingly becoming a high expectation for their digitally native consumers.

Merchant benefits of digital receipts

Many of us have seen unrecognized charges on our bank statements and, fearing it may be fraud, we contact our banks to file a chargeback. Our own research demonstrates that transaction confusion is a major cause of chargebacks, so giving customers more information about their purchases in their digital bank channels helps to ease that confusion. Details such as a distinct company logo and name attached to a charge can make a huge difference in helping consumers make sense of their purchase history.

Meanwhile, adding contact details on a digital receipt makes it easier for customers to reach out to a merchant if they have any questions, rather than going direct to their bank. Concerns over shipping delays, undelivered items or queries about the final sale amount can all lead to service-related disputes that can quickly turn into a chargeback. Giving merchants the opportunity to address these issues upfront via these contact details can help reduce chargebacks, related fees, and, most critically, ensure a better overall experience for customers.

Digital receipts positively impact a company’s brand too; while the post-transaction experience is often overlooked, it’s a key point in the purchase journey. Digital receipts with a merchant’s name and logo amplifies their brand’s presence. Plus, once the connection is made to share details between merchants and digital banking channels, it opens the door for greater functionality. This can include embedding offers, loyalty, and reward information and even warranty management directly in banking apps.

Digital life

Digital receipts are surging in popularity and merchants should be planning to integrate them where their customers spend most of their time – in their digital bank apps. To embed digital receipts within digital banking, however, collaboration is needed because it will be costly and time consuming for each company to build their own digital receipt infrastructure.

Additionally, collaboration between financial institutions and merchants is needed to embed receipt data into card issuing banks. For each merchant to seek to build individual connections with every issuer is cumbersome and infeasible. Third party solutions can help bridge these gaps.

Ultimately, with most consumers now comfortable operating digitally, merchants are starting to see how digital receipts could solve a number of long-standing problems, including reducing purchase confusion, chargebacks, and their related costs – while also extending brand presence.

Therefore, this technology offers substantial potential for both the increased use of digital banking and higher customer satisfaction scores for merchants, so there has never been a better time for businesses to harness the power of digital receipts.

Author Bio:

Gaurav Mittal, Executive Vice President, Ethoca

Gaurav Mittal is the Executive Vice President of Ethoca, a Mastercard company. Gaurav is focused on executing and evolving Ethoca’s global strategy to help businesses further reduce fraud and disputes and create better digital customer experiences.

Gaurav joined Mastercard in 2014. Immediately prior to his role at Ethoca, Gaurav led Global M&A for Mastercard. He has also held leadership positions across Product Development and Enterprise Strategy. Prior to Mastercard, Gaurav worked at Booz & Company where he helped customers develop and focus on their strategic initiatives. Before Booz, Gaurav worked as an early employee and senior executive  GEP, a B2B procure-to-pay technology company, where he oversaw rapid growth of the firm. .

Gaurav received his MBA from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Denison University.

[i] AITE, 2021: Reinventing Digital Banking and Digital Receipts: A Path to Greater Customer Engagement: https://aite-novarica.com/report/reinventing-digital-banking-delighting-and-increasing-value-consumers

[ii] AITE, 2020: Improving the Dispute Experience: Transparency Is Power: Improving the Dispute Experience: Transparency Is Power | Aite-Novarica