There are three types of people in this world: the people that save every receipt for their records, those that immediately toss their receipts away and the people that hoard receipts in their wallet for months until they become faded and unreadable.
Email receipts have similar categories: the people that carefully organize and catalog their receipts, those that plop them in the spam folder and those that never glance at them until tax season or if a return needs to be made.
Receipts are an expected part in almost every POS transaction, whether the receipt is received in person or via email. Businesses know that customers want a convenient way to be able to keep a record of their purchases and have a quick means to make a return, if necessary.
That said, many businesses fail to make the most out of their receipts because they don’t see them as the valuable marketing channel and touchpoint that they are.
When leveraged correctly, receipts can be used as a means to increase sales and further your business’ current marketing objectives. If you aren’t already using receipts as a marketing tool, you’re missing out on a straightforward and easy way to boost sales by utilizing a tactic (receipts) that your company already uses, which makes implementation a breeze.
As long as your point of sale system allows you to craft customized receipts, like an eHopper mobile POS system, then you can begin using your receipts as a means to enhance your company’s growth, increase sales and further key marketing goals.
Promote Your Brand and Its Activities with Custom Receipts
Consumers are more accessible by brands than ever before. In just a short day, a single consumer can be exposed to hundreds of marketing messages. This makes brand awareness and promotion even more important because it allows your business to stand out amongst the noise of other brands and their messages.
Receipts have the added bonus of being a marketing channel that is solely yours. For example, your social media posts are in competition with all of the other brands and stories on your customer’s newsfeed, but your receipts have no such competition.
Additionally, receipts have another advantage over other marketing channels: the individuals receiving your receipts, via email or in person, already have a relationship with your brand. They’ve made at least one purchase, which is a very valuable insight to have.
It means they are already your customer. Thus, you can use receipt-based messages to inform them of any of your brand’s other activities, from promoting other products, a social media page, a mobile app and so on.
How to Increase Revenues with Upselling
Businesses have long practiced the art of the upsell, evidenced by the classic line of: “Would you like fries with that?” Receipts offer an incredibly valuable upselling opportunity because you already have an idea, based on their recent purchase(s), what type of products they’ll be interested in.
This small bit of information means upselling additional products is much easier. Today’s “Would you like fries with that?” typically reads, “You may also be interested in these products.” It uses critical data from previous purchases to deliver resulting products that the person will be interested in.
This is an important distinction when upselling. The products you offer have to be relevant and interesting to the individual customer. If it’s just a random assortment of your other products, then that customer will be confused and disinterested; it may even come across as spam to them and harm your overall customer experience. Thus, you have to carefully consider what products to put in front of which customers.
The simplest strategy is to offer accessories or very similar products to the one they’ve already purchased. If they buy a laptop, upsell with an additional battery, a case or even an antivirus subscription.
Get More Sales by Offering Coupons and Other Incentives on Receipt
Getting a potential lead to become aware of your brand and ultimately purchase your products is what drives sales and helps a business grow. It’s the first major marketing/sales hurdle that has to be overcome. Luckily, you’ve already conquered that obstacle.
The next objective is to convert those first-time shoppers into loyal, repeat customers. Coupons and other savings opportunities are the most common way to incentivize return business and are tactics that are easily deliverable through your receipts. By including a coupon code or other promotional offer at the bottom of a receipt, you can significantly influence the chance of a future sale.
Coupons and other savings opportunities are the most common way to incentivize return business and are tactics that are easily deliverable through your receipts.
With email receipts, these coupons and discounts are even more powerful. Consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices inside stores as they shop, to either research products or look for discounts and sales. Having coupons readily available in their email from previous transactions is a powerful influence on future purchases. Email-based receipt coupons are very difficult to lose track of, and they are incredibly easy to redeem.
A receipt coupon may even stop a person from tossing it in the trash. Receipt-based offerings are interesting and engaging because they are unexpected.
Allow Customers to Track Reward Points Via Receipt
Aside from coupons, the other powerful incentive tool to fuel return business is a rewards point or loyalty program. Thanks to mobile and online tools, even a small business can offer its customers a sophisticated point-based loyalty program.
One of the more challenging aspects of using or running a points program is having an accessible means to see points. Customers don’t always want to have to check a website or download an app to see how many points they have or what their loyalty savings are.
By printing loyalty reward points at the bottom of receipts, customers can track their points every time they make a transaction. Alternatively, if your company does have an app-based loyalty program, the user could even scan a receipt and automatically enter their points or redeem savings themselves.
This tactic is proven effective, according to 2017 Valassis Coupon Intelligence Report, which found that 53% of consumers are familiar with scanning receipts through a mobile app to receive instant cash back rewards or loyalty points.
Promote A Survey to Receive Fast Feedback After Purchase
Consumer feedback is pivotal in helping a business learn customer sentiments and better understand what’s working, what isn’t and how strategies can be improved. The drawback is that it can be difficult to notify customers of your survey and even harder to influence them to participate in it.
Custom receipts through a mobile POS system can significantly help these a business overcome these issues and receive higher survey engagement numbers.
A lot of major stores are already pulling the trigger on this strategy. There’s a good chance that you’ve been in a store and been handed a receipt with survey information on it. There is usually a sweepstakes-style incentive where participants have an opportunity to win a large prize.
The real beauty of a receipt-based survey is that it guarantees that the survey taker is a customer. You can even ask about specific products that the customer purchased during their transaction. This can yield incredibly detailed insights into your products and how customers use and feel about those items.
Easily Deliver Warranty and Return Information Through Receipts
Certain products, like large appliances, computers, and other devices, come with a warranty, which protects the customer from the item failing or breaking prematurely. A warranty guarantees that the manufacturer will repair or replace the product if it breaks during a particular period.
Many companies publish their warranty information on their websites, but it can be helpful for a customer to have their own copy that is readily available to them. Including a product’s warranty information on a receipt can serve this need. And, since many people already keep receipts for their records, they can simultaneously maintain a record of their warranty information.
Some businesses find it advantageous to include their return policy on their receipts as well. Since many stores require a sales receipt to complete an item return, having the return policy right on the receipt is a no-brainer.
While these kind of receipt messages may not boost sales, like many of the other tactics to make this list, they do enhance the customer experience, which can be a positive impact on brand loyalty. After all, consumers like when a company and its processes are hassle-free.
How to Create Custom Receipts With An eHopper POS System
If your business uses an eHopper POS system and you want to begin crafting a custom email or print receipts, then you’ll be pleased to know that the process is straightforward. First, it is important to make the distinction between Store Settings and Company Settings.
If your business has multiple store locations, the Store Settings will allow you to edit the receipts of each store location. Thus, each store can use their custom receipts differently and achieve different objectives. Otherwise, the Company Settings can be used to change settings across all stores.
To find Store Settings, use the menu list on the left side of the main eHopper dashboard. Click on Settings, and the menu will expand to include Company Settings, Store Settings, and other choices. Once you enter Store Settings, there are some options across the top of the screen (General, Contacts, Receipt, Tips, Taxes and more). Tap the Receipt tab, and you’ll be able to edit eHopper’s receipt options.
Aside from the language options, there is a “Kitchen Receipt” checkbox. By marking off this box, your eHopper POS system will allow you to print receipts for a kitchen to serve food orders. Disregard this option if your business is not a restaurant or dining establishment.
To make custom receipts, you want the Footer text box. Anything you enter into this field will appear at the bottom of your receipts. Thus, you can include your store’s return policy, a redeemable coupon code, information about the next in-store event, your brand’s social media handles or any other written messages that you want to display to customers in their receipts.
You may want to test out a few different messages and see how they appear in both printed and emailed formats before you settle on a final footer.
Conclusions
Customized receipts use an old, tired and seemingly-dull tactic (plain receipts) in a new and exciting way that allows businesses to reach their customers with important marketing messages and other relevant information. Compared to other marketing channels, receipts are very advantageous for some reasons.
First, only customers receive receipts, which means you can focus your messages to serve this particular segment better.
Second, you’re already using receipts, so enhancing them with custom marketing messages is both straightforward and zero-cost, as long as you have a specialized POS system that offers the option.
The only tricky part of creating customized receipts is knowing which message you’ll try first to boost your sales.
Ready to get more sales with POS system receipts? Get started with eHopper today!