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NRF: Can retailers boost transactions with personalized receipts?

January 15, 2019Written by RetailWire Staff

Photo: @sijiaw via Twenty20

As retailers continue to experiment with new ways to personalize the e-commerce experience, there is a less obvious touchpoint that they might be overlooking — the receipt. In a session at the 2019 NRF show in New York, Jennifer Biefel, director of customer marketing at GNC, explained how the chain has been pushing conversions with post-purchase communications. GNC has taken steps to enhance the post-purchase experience, such as:

Using images of products on the digital receipt to pique the customer's interest and recognition;
Featuring top sellers and items a customer might like on the digital receipt based on customer and purchase data;
Using data to determine which customers are most likely to join the retailer's loyalty program, and targeting them with offers to join;
Offering the option to sign up for auto-replenishment of products the customer has purchased next to the images of those products on the digital receipt.

These strategies have shown quantifiable success, according to Ms. Biefel. Seven percent of the sales attributed to each receipt came from the featured cross-sell/upsell products. More than 10 percent of people who purchased an item promoted on the receipt signed up for auto-replenishment, and the advertisement for the loyalty program showed a tenfold lift in signups compared to a control group. GNC has also begun personalizing the packing slips in the boxes of its deliveries and has found that personalized offers have driven e-commerce customers into stores to discuss the items with store staff and to make purchases. The chain intends to continue bringing in new and more sophisticated customer data to better target upsells on receipts and is even adding the same sort of individual customer data to the printed in-store receipts as it has on the digital receipts. Tomas Diaz, CEO of FlexEngage, who also presented at the session, pointed out the unique benefits of post-purchase communications. "In this day and age of relevancy or personalization, to give somebody a very static communication is just criminal," said Mr. Diaz. "It's a very wasted opportunity."

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