I don’t agree with retailers being concerned with extra time spent in line as usually club cards or the sort are scanned whilst payment is taking place or cash is being brought out of the pocket.

The idea would mostly apply to something like the Nectar Card: http://www.nectar.com/

I think there are a few holes in the theory you’ve identified.

1) A bank can’t receive line-item data (product descriptions) from a retailer unless the bank’s system is integrated directly into the retailers system. The bank only receives a value, type of transaction, and a merchant name, which was previously registered with the card associations (Visa, MasterCard, ect.) when the merchant was setup to accept credit cards.

2) The costs the banks would incur to integrate into the millions of retailers would be mind bloggling.

3) If you had to go to a different web site to view each of your receipts from the various retailers you purchase then create a scenario that is more frustrating then receiving a paper receipt.

Jon mentioned Third Solutions, which I think is a very poor concept for what digital receipts should be. Their idea is to issue a card to consumers – as if we don’t have enough cards to carry around already – that requires a cashier to input a membership number in order for the consumer to get a digital receipt from the retailer.

This concept is not only more frustrating for the consumer because of the extra card they now have to carry, but its also more time consuming for the retailer. Since retailers are already concerning with the amount of time their customers stand in line, Third Solutions will have a tough time selling a retailer on why to implement a system that requires more customer-cashier interaction.

There is another solution that was implemented here at Stanford University called allEtronic. Here’s how it works: I first created my free account. I then linked my credit and debit cards to this account, and only the first 6 and last 4 digits my numbers. When I use one of my linked cards to pay in a store that offers allEtronic, the system knows its me and automatically sends me a digital receipt to my online account. No printed paper, and no waste. Plus it easier to track my purchases on campus.

I called the company and they said they are being integrated into a lot of businesses outside of Stanford.

Kurt

Craig

Thanks,

Jonathan

I had lost it.. but found it on my girlfriend’s computer on the weekend. Highly doubt i’ll find any of the other three presentation boards missing from my college posts though.