If Apple is doing it than it must be good. The "it" in this case is the use of paperless receipts. The Apple Store began giving consumers the option of having a receipt emailed to them rather than getting paper documentation back in 2005.
Today, a wide variety of retailers are offering e-receipts with purchases. According to a study by Epsilon, 35 percent of retailers offer an alternative to paper.
Jim Sluzewski, a spokesperson for Macy's, told USA Today that e-receipts currently account for 12 percent of transactions at the chain's stores. The small percentage of consumers availing themselves of the e-receipt option suggests that many consumers are more comfortable sticking with paper.
A variety of reasons including cost savings, greater customer insights and interactivity are driving retail adoption of e-receipts.
The one area of apparent disagreement on the benefits of e-receipts is in the fraud/security question.
A piece from last December on the website of STORES argued that e-receipts pose a risk. Tom Rittman, vice president of marketing for The Retail Equation, told the magazine, "A digital receipt can be transmitted instantly to multiple mobile devices across the city [or farther] and re-printed on all means of paper with no control by the retailer. Now, retailers can be hit with rapid and massive return fraud before having time to react. With e-receipts, retailers are more susceptible to organized retail crime."
Another article on the Bronto Software acknowledges security concerns, but suggests there's a fix. "The best way to avoid these issues is include a barcode in the email that links to the transaction in your commerce platform. Combining this with other unique identifiers can add another layer of fraud protection."