E-receipt reduces the importance of paper receipts in Estonian trade
Today, Estonian Electronic Receipt (e-Receipt) project was kicked off in Ülemiste Shopping Centre by opening the largest wastepaper basket in Estonia. The goal of the project is to gradually reduce the use of paper receipts in Estonian trade and service sectors.
E-Receipt portal is a system that enables end users to manage their receipts, as well as documents related to those, such as letters of guarantee and product manuals, in a single convenient web environment. Traders will be able to reduce problems and costs related to paper receipts, thereby increasing the quality of customer service. Using e-receipts will be voluntary for companies, as well as end users.
Pille Muni, the manager of the Estonian e-Receipt project and a representative of Omniva, stated that this is a broader social initiative that is also palpably supported by the state. 'Befitting a progressive e-state, it is possible to conduct various tasks online from declaring taxes to viewing medical prescriptions. But even today, we still need to issue paper receipts after making purchases, and there is no central system for managing a person's entire purchase information," said Muni.
The largest Estonian wastepaper basket to date was opened at the introductory event for the e-Receipt project that took place in Ülemiste Centre; the basket contained over 15,000 receipts, which the project team collected during preparations stage. 'This represents but a fraction of what is printed in Estonia in a year – about 20 tons of paper is used to print about 400 million receipts,' specified Muni.
According to Muni, the service is in its beta-testing stage, and end users can start using the portal in the autumn. 'Simultaneously with system development, we are negotiating with several sales and service companies to join the e-Receipt. We have worked very closely with developers of economic software and cash register systems in order to prepare an interface for merchants and create a mobile receipt in collaboration with Telia. We can see that merchants have a need for the project and an interest in joining it,' said Muni.
According to Norbert Kaareste, the Head of Communications of Alexela, paper receipts are obsolete in an e-state. 'This year alone, Alexela petrol stations have issued over 800,000 receipts, or basically 4 receipts per second. We can see that adopting e-receipts would save both the environment and our customers' time significantly,' commented Kaareste.
Directo, developer of economic software, has also joined the project; the company has about 3,200 sales points in Estonia. According to Egon Leego, the Sales Director of Directo, their clients are already better prepared for adopting the e-Receipt system due to joining. 'This enables our sales points to reach new levels in customer service by making purchases even faster and more convenient for our clients,' said Leego.
The E-Receipt project is led by Omniva; its partners include Telia Eesti, ICT Demo Center, Authente, Helesinine Consulting, TripleDev and Trinidad Consulting. In addition to Directo, the partners for developing the cash register systems include Ekato, ID Süsteemide AS, Laansoo & Trussman and Gilbraco.
The project is partly funded by Estonian-Norwegian cooperation program Green ICT and partly co-financed by partners.
