Digital receipts: From paper strip to data source

When Germany's receipt issuance requirement took effect in early 2020, retail associations warned of millions of additional miles of receipt paper per year – enough to wrap around the earth several times over. For many retailers, the receipt was mainly one thing: a mandatory chore that came with costs and disposal hassle. But that view falls short. In its digital form, this unassuming piece of paper at the checkout is now becoming a touchpoint for customer loyalty, marketing, and data analytics. Three forces are driving the shift from paper receipt to digital receipt – and they're reinforcing each other.

Germany's receipt issuance requirement has been in effect since January 1, 2020: anyone operating an electronic point-of-sale system must provide a receipt for every sale – either on paper or digitally. So far, a digital receipt – say, via QR code at the terminal, by email, or through an app – has required customer consent. But that could soon change.

According to a new draft law, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil wants to ease the paper-receipt requirement in two steps, as Handelsblatt reported in early June 2026. First, receipts would no longer be mandatory at all for small amounts up to 30 euros. After that, the electronic receipt would become the default: retailers would generally have to provide receipts digitally, with paper available only on request. The paper receipt would then no longer be the standard, but the exception.

The law hasn't been passed yet, but the direction is clear. For retailers, this means digital receipt processes are very likely moving from a nice-to-have to preparation for an upcoming mandate. Those who tackle the transition early can spread investments in point-of-sale integration and process changes over a longer period – rather than scrambling to catch up later under time pressure.

The direction becomes clear when looking at neighboring countries. France already eliminated the automatic paper receipt in August 2023, under its anti-waste law (Loi AGEC). There, digital is the default and paper is available only on request. Italy is phasing it out in stages – large retailers by 2027, everyone else by 2029. Belgium, meanwhile, made the paper receipt optional in 2023. So Europe is moving in the same direction, just at very different speeds. Germany tends to be among the latecomers here. For internationally active retailers, this mainly means keeping track of varying rules and deadlines.

The third driver is environmental. Thermal paper contains 0.5 to 3 percent color developer – formerly bisphenol A (BPA), now mostly bisphenol S (BPS), which is suspected of having hormonal effects. Because a receipt looks like ordinary paper, it also often ends up in the paper recycling bin instead of general waste – contaminating the recycling stream, which can allow the color developer to re-enter the material cycle through recycled products. The digital receipt sidesteps this problem while also saving on paper and disposal costs. Sustainability is thus not just a compliance issue, but also a communication asset with an increasingly environmentally conscious customer base.

In practice, though, this shift is still in its early stages: according to a study by refive (a provider of digital receipt solutions), only about a quarter of major German retailers (26 percent) offered a digital receipt in 2023 – a figure that's rising. No overall count yet exists for how many German retailers offer an electronic receipt in 2026.

These three forces rarely act in isolation – they reinforce one another. For retailers, the question is less whether the receipt goes digital, and more how, and who controls the customer interface. What matters is point-of-sale integration, a compelling path to customer consent, and GDPR-compliant data handling. After all, retailers who issue digital receipts only through a third-party provider's app hand that provider the customer relationship – and the data along with it. Those who instead integrate the receipt into their own app or customer account turn a legal obligation into their own channel for communication and marketing.

What was once a throwaway slip becomes a data anchor – and with it, one of the most valuable sources of first-party data: the firsthand customer data that's increasingly likely to determine competitive advantage in retail.