U.K. retail chains eyeing e-receipt systems such as those offered by Paperless Receipts, which is talking to retailers, including Tesco; 60%-70% of U.K. retailers to offer paperless receipts within five years, says Paperless Receipts executive

Bdebbie Garcia

LOS ANGELES , December 9, 2011 (Industry Intelligence) – Fewer stores in the U.K. will be offering paper receipts to customers in the coming years as paperless receipts systems are expected to expand in the retail industry, reported The Daily Telegraph on Dec. 6.

Within five years, 60% to 70% of Britain’s retailers will be offering e-receipts, said Andrew Carroll, managing director of Paperless Receipts Ltd.

The British company, which is backed by Armonk, New York-based International Business Machines Corp. and £500,000 (US$780,601) in private investment, is talking with major U.K. retailers, including Dundee, England-based Tesco PLC.

The e-receipt systems provide shoppers with digital confirmation of their purchases via email, rather than the traditional paper receipt that is printed out at checkout, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Paperless Receipts emails the confirmation to a dedicated Internet address that can be accessed by customers rather than directly to their email inboxes, which is the system used now by Apple Inc. in its stores.

Younger customers are most likely to be the first to use paperless receipts as they are already used to making payments electronically on devices such as mobile phones, said Carroll.

E-receipts are not “environmentally damaging” or “onerous for the consumer to store safely,” said former Tesco CEO Lord Ian MacLaurin, who is an investor in Paperless Receipts, reported The Daily Telegraph.

The primary source of this article is The Daily Telegraph, London, England, on Dec. 6, 2011.

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