In an effort to cultivate a paperless future for receipts, the Finnish digital receipt platform ReceiptHero has reportedly formed a strategic partnership with both Mastercard and Visa.
The collaboration will allow ReceiptHero to scale their operations beyond Finland and across Europe, subsequently providing more merchants with the opportunity to send their receipts to private and business customers digitally.
It’s reported that ReceiptHero will leverage both Mastercard and Visa’s platform for real-time transactions to be used as part of the digital receipt delivery process. Unlike email or paper receipts, a digital receipt automatically matches the structured purchase data to the right transaction. Having both card networks supporting ReceiptHero technically will allow for a giant step in the adoption of digital receipts.
By partnering with ReceiptHero, Visa aims to drive the adoption of digital receipts across Europe, whilst anticipating the impact of eliminating paper receipts. Specifically, ReceiptHero will benefit from the use of the Visa Offers Platform – an API-based tool that will enable them to access authorisation data across Europe and expand their merchant customer base.
“We’ve been really impressed with ReceiptHero’s approach to building out the digital receipt infrastructure,” comments Pratap Gautam, Visa’s VP Head of Buyer and Seller Solutions. “The team has proven the platform works in Finland and we’re looking forward to supporting them to grow throughout Europe.”
Similarly to Visa, Mastercard has been investing significantly into their sustainability efforts. One of those being the Priceless Planet Coalition, whereby Mastercard aims to restore 100 million trees by 2025. Where Mastercard and ReceiptHero can have a direct impact is encouraging people to make mindful spending choices through personalised insights, which can be visible on a digital receipt.
“ReceiptHero participated in our Lighthouse Programme in late 2020, since then we have been working towards a partnership that is mutually beneficial for both,” comments Erik Gutwasser, Division President, Mastercard Nordics and Baltics. “At Mastercard, we have many opportunities to support a world where digital receipts are the defacto proof of purchase. We are excited to get up and running with ReceiptHero.”
For point of sale (PoS) partners, ReceiptHero supports as an integrated partner allowing their merchants to go live with digital receipts as seamlessly as possible. By working with Visa and Mastercard, PoS partners will be able to provide the ReceiptHero service to all their merchants, regardless of the payment terminal they use.
“From the very beginning, we believed the card networks played a key role in how digital receipts are adopted, after all, it’s the only part of the payment experience to have not been fully digitalised,” comments Joel Ojala, the CEO of ReceiptHero. “This partnership provides rocket fuel for our growth into new markets but also supports all of our existing ecosystem partners with a better experience. We can’t wait to get started.”
Digital receipts are not just ecologically sustainable, they also save on a lot of physical posting and enable merchants and consumers with an opportunity to analyse their purchase data and better understand the behaviour of consumer consumption.
“This is a rally cry to merchants across Europe who haven’t started sending receipts to their customers digitally, now is the time to join the movement, and let’s together stop the ecological disaster known as the paper receipt!” added Joel. “Delivering truly digital receipts might sound simple on the surface but in reality, it requires all ecosystem partners working together to make it the new normal. The new business models created by building the foundations will be a billion-dollar opportunity so it’s best to be on this journey with us from the start.”
ReceiptHero has announced that they intend to continue their work with key partners, such as Worldline and Verifone. By having access to a local level within the merchant’s store, ReceiptHero is building out interesting features and functionality to allow both merchants and customers to benefit from digital receipts.
With ReceiptHero’s platform being fully operational in Finland for the past two years, the company has activated an extensive catalogue of merchants across the country. Two of the largest corporate banks in the region, SEB and Nordea have also embraced digital receipts with direct integrations with ReceiptHero. Finland has been accelerating towards digital receipt adoption and the model is expected to be replicated across other European markets.
