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Paper or Email? Shoppers Are Clinging to Their Printed Receipts

Paper or Email? Shoppers Are Clinging to Their Printed Receipts

(Bloomberg) -- Paper sales receipts won’t die, even as the world rushes to digital.

A survey of consumers conducted for a group tied to the paper industry found more than three quarters of U.S. shoppers preferred to walk away with a slip of paper, not a copy sent to an email.

“Consumers prefer and trust paper and there is a very real worry about data security that needs to be considered,” said Greg Selfe, campaign manager for Choose Paper, a group formed last month to advocate for paper over digital as green groups target the slips.

Paper or Email? Shoppers Are Clinging to Their Printed Receipts

U.S. shoppers are the biggest paper backers, at 71%, followed by the U.K. at 69%, Canada at 64% and Germany at 61%, the survey found. A year ago, a separate YouGov Omnibus survey found 68% of internet users preferred a physical receipt while 19% favored a digital copy.

Choose Paper argues that hard-copy receipts don’t deplete forests, a key argument for adopting an email-only approach. Green America, an advocacy group founded four decades ago in Washington, is pushing U.S. retailers to drop paper, citing the loss of trees.

Read: Norway to Abolish Retail Paper Receipt Requirements

Its efforts helped fuel a legislative effort in California this year to ban paper receipts unless a customer asks for one. Restaurants and retailers opposed the bill, dubbed “Skip the Slip,” which failed in August.

Green America is targeting three dozen retailers to adopt electronic receipts, although only Best Buy, Apple and Ben & Jerry‘s currently provide them. The remaining companies either lack a formal program, or make it optional, according to an online report.

Selfe’s Chicago-based group, which is affiliated with Two Sides North America, a paper and graphic industry association, focused on the threat of identity theft for emailed receipts.

Taken Away

“Our research shows that most people do not want digital receipts,” he said. “There is a risk that consumer choice is being taken away.”

A Toluna poll this year found 70% of U.S. consumers and 64% of Canadians were concerned that by giving retailers personal information, such as emails and addresses, they were at a greater risk of being hacked.

About half, or 48%, of the 8,900 people surveyed in North America and Europe said paper receipts are more secure, while 23% said electronic versions were most secure. Majorities also said paper is more practical for archiving, accounting, returns and refunds.

Green America said printing the slips consumes more than 3.3 million trees and 9.1 billion gallons of water a year, generating 4.7 billion pounds of greenhouse gases -- the equivalent of 450,000 cars on the road.

Read more: Costco Canada to Stop Using Receipts With BPA

Selfe said the data centers needed to send email receipts consume power. Emissions generated by emails are equivalent to the annual output of 63 million cars, he said. The percentage of receipts in that total is unknown.

Green America is also fighting paper receipts because almost all are covered with a chemical they contend is harmful. Choose Paper says there is no effect on human health.

Read more
Desert Pumping, Paper Receipt Ban Bills Moving in California
Canada Privacy Office Not Overly Concerned On Retail Trend Toward Paperless Receipts
Length of CVS Receipts Target of Jokes, and Now Activists
Trader Joe’s to Remove Controversial Chemicals From Receipts (1)

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Geimann in Washington at sgeimann@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew G. Miller at mmiller144@bloomberg.net, Ian Fisher, Tony Czuczka

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